Juul can’t arbitrate a wage-and-hour lawsuit filed by canvassers for its unsuccessful 2019 bid to legalize e-cigarettes in San Francisco, a California federal judge has ruled, finding that the agreements the workers signed weren’t broad enough to cover their claims.
U.S. District Judge Haywood S. Gilliam Jr. on Wednesday denied motions to compel arbitration filed by Juul and the companies that ran the campaign on its behalf. Although those companies had argued that their contracts required arbitration of disputes, Judge Gilliam found that the pacts weren’t broad enough to encompass the canvassers’ class action alleging minimum wage, overtime, expense reimbursement and meal-break violations under the California labor code.