Case Overview: A class action lawsuit alleges that Philip Morris International deceptively marketed Zyn nicotine pouches to young people, leading to addiction.
Consumers Affected: Young people who have become addicted to Zyn nicotine pouches due to deceptive marketing.
Court: U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida
Philip Morris International is under fire for allegedly trying to get young people addicted to nicotine with Zyn, its recently acquired flavored nicotine pouches, a new lawsuit alleges.
The pouches, which users place in their mouths, are similar in effect to cigarettes and e-cigarettes, and are designed to create and sustain an addiction to nicotine, the lawsuit states. “Nicotine is the fundamental reason why people use these products.”
Nicholas Lendinara filed the lawsuit against Philip Morris International (PMI) and Swedish Match North America, LLC, who PMI purchased Zyn from for $16 billion in 2022, saying he began using Zyn at the age of 23 because he was “enticed by the flavors” and by the “deceptive advertising.”
Lendinara says he is now addicted to nicotine because of Zyn and has “suffered personal injuries as a result of his Zyn use.” He claims he didn't know about Zyn’s “unreasonably dangerous characteristics” when he began using the pouches, which he started doing due to PMI’s wrongful conduct. The lawsuit states that PMI’s marketing efforts and tobacco sale know-how has fueled growth and secured market dominance.
“PMI has, for decades, profited by addicting children to Marlboro cigarettes, the world’s most popular brand. It is no surprise then that PMI bought the company, Swedish Match, that makes the most popular oral nicotine pouch,” the lawsuit alleges.
Zyn is an oral nicotine product in a pouch, a small, pillow-like pouch that a user puts in their mouth, whose nicotine is derived from tobacco leaf.
While the pouches don’t contain tobacco leaf, the nicotine is derived from tobacco making Zyn’s tobacco-free labeling false, the lawsuit contends, and instead the pouches are full of pharmaceutical grade nicotine salt and other ingredients like flavors, the lawsuit states. Nicotine is a highly addictive drug, “just as addictive as cocaine and heroin,” the lawsuit adds.
The nicotine filters through the pouch and is absorbed into the bloodstream, increasing heart rate and blood pressure and releasing dopamine and other neurotransmitters. Zyn is available in nicotine concentrations of 3mg, 6mg, and 8mg, and while the typical cigarette smoker absorbs 1mg of nicotine into the body per cigarette, the 8mg Zyn pouches result in 3.79mg being absorbed, the lawsuit argues. “Zyn, therefore, delivers a potent dose of nicotine into the bloodstream.”
Children, especially, are vulnerable to nicotine addiction and nine out of ten nicotine users start by the age of 18, according to the U.S. Surgeon General. More than 80% who begin as teens will continue into adulthood. PMI is well aware of this and uses “the same kind of fraudulent and deceptive youth marketing business practices that PMI has been using for decades” to exploit teenages while denying wrongdoing, the lawsuit alleges.
“Zyn is just a recent iteration of the tobacco industry’s historical practice of designing a nicotine delivery device that hooks children to nicotine while making them think it is not dangerous or harmful.”
The lawsuit claims PMI uses the same business model it did for Malboro cigarettes, saying long ago: “Today’s teenager is tomorrow’s potential regular customer and the overwhelming majority of smokers first begin to smoke while in their teens.”
For a more modern approach, the lawsuit accuses PMI of using “Zynfluencers,” – social media influencers who promote Zyn. Around 30,000 TikToks labeled with the hashtag #Zyn, which has amassed more than 700 million views, the lawsuit states. “Young people are exposed, and according to the CDC, rates of oral nicotine pouch users among middle schoolers and highschoolers are rising,” it goes on to add.
As nicotine pouch usage continues to climb, it’s likely the industry will be under more regulatory scrutiny—currently Zyn hasn’t received authorization from the FDA to market its product as a modified risk tobacco product or tobacco cessation device.
Zyn has been hit with at least three other lawsuits, and in June PMI said Swedish Match North America was issued a subpoena from the attorney general of the District of Columbia, probing the firm’s compliance with the district’s ban on flavored nicotine pouches. Barron’s reports that the company’s management warned shareholders that “material liability” could come out of the probe—but investors shrugged off the risk.
Other large tobacco corporations are also heading to the nicotine pouch market, with Altria buying an 80% stake in the company that makes Zyn’s rival product On!, and British American Tobacco and Imperial Brands both looking to develop their own products in the market and acquire other successful startups.
In his lawsuit, Lendinara is suing for design defects, failure to warn, negligence, and fraud, and is seeking damages including for physical pain and suffering, mental anguish, loss of enjoyment of life, emotional distress, medical expenses, economic harm, as well as for costs and more.
Case Details
Plaintiffs' Attorneys
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