British American Tobacco (BAT) has been hit with a $5m class action lawsuit from consumers who say they were misled about a flagship vape product.
The complaint, filed last week in the Northern District of California, centres on sustainability claims made by the tobacco giant about Vuse, which was marketed as the “world’s first carbon neutral vape brand”.
It repeatedly references last year’s revelations by the Bureau of Investigative Journalism (TBIJ) that Vuse had achieved its green status with carbon credits that have been deemed to make no environmental difference.
The court filing, which names BAT and its RJ Reynolds subsidiaries as defendants, says that consumers chose Vuse over other products because of these claims, detailing instances in which it was promoted as carbon neutral. It also cites a BAT document in which the company described its green credentials as a means of “enhancing consumer buy-in [and] brand loyalty”.
