--- title: FDA Authorizes the JUUL2 Vaping System Four Years After Moving to Ban Juul description: The FDA has cleared Juul's next-generation JUUL2 device and pods, four years after moving to ban the company, returning it to a market it no longer leads. author: Darie Nani (Editor-in-Chief) updated: 2026-08-29T01:15:42.902Z canonical: https://www.sovereignmagazine.com/article/juul2-fda-authorization-vaping-market categories: Markets content_type: News region: United States publication: Sovereign Magazine schema_type: Article --- The FDA on August 28, 2026 authorized Juul to sell its next-generation vaping system in the United States, granting marketing orders for the JUUL2 device and its tobacco- and menthol-flavored pods. The decision arrives a little over four years after the agency moved to pull Juul's products from American shelves, and it is the company's first newly authorized hardware in more than a decade. In issuing the orders, the FDA applied its statutory standard, finding the products “appropriate for the protection of the public health.” ## A Redesigned Device With Optional Age Verification The authorization applies to JUUL2, a redesigned system rather than the original JUUL. Its most notable addition is optional, built-in age verification: the device can be set to require the user to confirm through an online app that they are 21 or older before it will operate. The authorized pods carry 18 mg/mL of nicotine, a lower strength than the original JUUL products the FDA cleared in July 2025, which came in 3 percent and 5 percent formulations, roughly 30 and 50 mg/mL. Only tobacco and menthol were granted orders. Juul CEO K.C. Crosthwaite has said the company plans to seek authorization for additional flavors, though none is cleared today. ## From Denial Orders to a Marketing Grant The clearance closes a reversal that ran through four years of regulatory back-and-forth. In June 2022 the FDA issued marketing denial orders against Juul, effectively moving to remove its products from the U.S. market. The agency administratively stayed those orders the following month, and in June 2024 it rescinded them outright. In July 2025 it authorized the original JUUL device and its tobacco and menthol pods. The August 2026 grant for JUUL2 is the next step: authorized hardware, not a reinstatement of an older product. ## The Market Juul Comes Back To The company returning under these orders is smaller than the one the FDA moved against. Juul was valued at about $38 billion in 2018, the year Altria took a 35 percent stake for $12.8 billion. By 2023 that valuation had fallen to around $714 million. The company laid off more than 2,000 employees between 2020 and 2022 and paid over $1 billion to settle claims brought by states, school districts and individuals. Altria exited its stake in 2023. Juul has also lost its lead. Vuse now leads the U.S. e-cigarette market with about 42 percent of retail share, with Juul at roughly 24 percent. Including Juul, five brands now hold FDA authorizations for e-cigarettes: Vuse, NJOY, Logic, Juul and Glas, covering about 48 products with marketing granted orders. Authorized products are only a sliver of that market. About 2 percent of U.S. vape sales by volume come from FDA-cleared products; the other 98 percent is unauthorized, largely disposable brands such as Elf Bar and Geek Bar that have not been through FDA review. Authorization lets Juul sell legally, but most of the market it competes in has never cleared the same bar. ## The Public-Health Objections on the Record The concern that drove the FDA's 2022 action, youth vaping, has eased sharply since. The 2025 National Youth Tobacco Survey put youth e-cigarette use at 5.2 percent, the lowest since 2019 and down from a peak near 14 percent that year and 7.7 percent in 2023. Public-health groups continue to object to Juul's clearance. The [American Lung Association](https://www.lung.org/media/press-releases/fy26-juul-fda-statement) says the products still do not meet the Tobacco Control Act's public-health standard and has called on the FDA to reverse the authorization. In July 2026, the [Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, along with pediatricians and parents, sued the FDA](https://www.tobaccofreekids.org/press-releases/2026_07_14_public-health-groups-pediatricians-and-parents-sue-fda-over-policy-allowing-the-marketing-of-unauthorized-e-cigarettes-and-nicotine-pouches) over a policy they say lets thousands of unauthorized e-cigarettes remain on the market without scientific review. ## FAQ **Q: Is Juul banned in the US?** No. Juul products are legal to sell again. They were under an FDA denial order issued in 2022, but the agency rescinded that order in 2024 and has since authorized both the original JUUL and the JUUL2 system. **Q: Why did the FDA move to ban Juul in 2022?** The FDA's 2022 denial orders came amid concern over youth vaping. That concern has since eased, with federal survey data putting youth e-cigarette use at a multi-year low in 2025. **Q: Which e-cigarette brands has the FDA authorized?** Five: Vuse, NJOY, Logic, Juul and Glas, covering about 48 products. Even so, authorized products account for only about 2 percent of U.S. vape sales, with most volume going to unauthorized disposables.