JUUL‘s former senior vice president of global finance Siddharth Breja is accusing the company of shipping one million contaminated e-cigarette pods without issuing a recall. According to BuzzFeed News, Breja issued a multi-faceted lawsuit against the company this week outlining the problematic instances he encountered while working at JUUL.
Breja states that he became aware that around 250,000 JUUL mint refill kits (one million pods) containing contaminated e-liquid were shipped by JUUL to various retailers and eventually sold to consumers earlier this year. According to the lawsuit, Breja suggested the company issue a recall or public safety notice, but was met with JUUL’s former chief finance officer Tim Danaher’s disapproval, as a recall would cost the company quite a bit of money.
The lawsuit also states that Breja encouraged JUUL to add expiration dates to its packaging after the company proposed selling year-old pods. JUUL’s former chief executive Kevin Burns reportedly replied: “Half our customers are drunk and vaping like mo-fos, who the f*ck is going to notice the quality of our pods?”
JUUL responded to the lawsuit with a statement made to Engadget that gives a reason for Breja’s termination and denies all claims. “[Mr. Breja] was terminated in March 2019 because he failed to demonstrate the leadership qualities needed in his role,” stated the e-cigarette company. “The allegations concerning safety issues with JUUL products are equally meritless, and we already investigated the underlying manufacturing issue and determined the product met all applicable specifications.”
