Both Maryland and Virginia are set to receive millions of dollars from the vape manufacturer Juul Labs, settling a two-year long investigation into the company’s marketing tactics.

Virginia Attorney General Jason Miyares and Maryland Attorney General Brian Frosh joined more than 30 other states and territories in signing a tentative agreement with the company this week, to the tune of  $438.5 million paid out over nearly a decade. According to Miyares’ office, Virginia is set to receive $16.1 million, while a press release from Frosh’s office says Maryland could be seeing more than $13 million from the settlement.

“Marketing nicotine to children is flat out dangerous. It puts kids at risk for a lifetime of addiction,” Frosh said in a statement on Tuesday. “We hope that this settlement, once finalized, will stop Juul’s harmful sales practices.”

The bipartisan investigation, launched in 2020, alleged that the nicotine vaping giant willfully advertised to youth with launch parties, social media marketing, and “trendy-looking models,” and mislead consumers in a number of other ways. Juul’s original packaging did not clearly disclose the correct concentration of nicotine, the investigation alleged, and falsely presented itself as a device that would help consumers stop smoking cigarettes when that claim had not been backed by the federal Food and Drug Administration.

As a part of the tentative agreement, Juul would be required to steer its advertising away from young people, with provisions including never depicting anyone under age 35 in its marketing, or advertising on billboards or near schools, among other restrictions. Many of the terms of the agreement won’t impact the immediate practices of the company — which has over the years stopped offering parties, giveaways, and flavored products after coming under scrutiny for marketing to kids.

While the tentative agreement stipulates $438.5 million paid out over five to nine years, the terms with each state are still being finalized. The longer Juul takes to pay the money, the more they’ll owe — meaning that when all is said and done, the company could be paying nearly $480 million.

A spokesperson for Frosh’s office did not immediately return DCist/WAMU’s request for comment about how the state plans to use the money, and a spokesperson for Miyares’ office declined to comment. (Connecticut Attorney General William Tong, for example, said the state’s payment of $16 million will go towards vaping prevention and education efforts.)

This week’s agreement is just one in a bevy lawsuits the company has  faced — or is currently facing — over its contribution to what the FDA has declared a teen vaping epidemic. D.C.’s Attorney General Karl Racine filed a lawsuit against the company in 2019 for misleading advertising and marketing to youth, and a number of other states like Arizona, North Carolina, and Louisiana have settled separate lawsuits with the company.

Once a leader in e-cigarettes, Juul’s popularity among young people has fallen away in recent years, amid the rise of disposable vaping products.  Recent FDA data showed that Juul was the fourth most common brand among students who vaped, behind the leading Puff Bar.

Juul came under its most intense scrutiny earlier this summer, when the FDA attempted to ban all Juul e-cigarettes from the market. A federal appeals court blocked the government’s ban.