Big Tobacco’s Attempt to Take Control of the Vape Industry

Major tobacco companies have tried to launch “healthier” products more than once. Most of these attempts were not successful. But once vaping started to gain traction, they knew they had to try again to land a corner of the vaping market. Since the public perceives vaping as a less harmful option over smoking, the tobacco industry sees it as the perfect way to get consumers interested in tobacco again in a fresh, new way.

Many of the existing big companies started their own vape devices, while others opted to invest in vape companies. Altria Group, one of the biggest tobacco companies globally (and the parent company of Marlboro), stopped production of its e-cigs and bought a 35% share in JUUL Labs, one of the top-selling vape companies. There has been some controversy over this USD 13 billion investment, with the United States Federal Trade Commission arguing that the deal between Altria and JUUL was illegal. However, Altria maintains that it stopped selling its e-cigarettes not because of JUUL but because it wasn’t performing well.