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Mealey's Tobacco

  • August 27, 2024

    FDA Tells High Court It Followed Tobacco Laws In Banning Flavored E-Cigs

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Food and Drug Administration in an Aug. 26 merits brief tells the U.S. Supreme Court that it was acting in compliance with the Tobacco Control Act (TCA) when it banned flavored e-cigarette products as not “appropriate for the protection of public health” (APPH) and urges the high court to reverse the vacatur of its bans by the en banc Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals.

  • August 26, 2024

    FDA Seeks Extension In Tobacco Companies’ High Court Challenge To Graphic Warnings

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Food and Drug Administration and its federal codefendants on Aug. 23 asked the U.S. Supreme Court for an additional month to respond to a petition for a writ of certiorari filed by tobacco companies and retailers, who are challenging the Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals’ ruling upholding the Food and Drug Administration’s new graphic warnings requirement on tobacco products as a violation of their free speech rights.

  • August 21, 2024

    ‘Lottery’ Voir Dire Didn’t Taint Engle Trial, Tobacco Company Tells Florida Panel

    MIAMI — A tobacco company in an Aug. 21 appellee brief urges a Florida appellate court to affirm a jury verdict finding that a dead smoker’s son was time-barred from bringing claims against it for causing his mother’s chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and death, writing that the court’s jury selection procedures and its use of a lottery system were proper.

  • August 20, 2024

    Florida Supreme Court Quashes Reversal Of Husband’s $157M Engle Verdict

    TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — The Florida Supreme Court granted a petition for review filed by a dead smoker’s widower and quashed an appellate panel’s reversal of a $157 million Engle verdict in his favor and remanded to the panel for further proceedings after issuing a recent opinion addressing the availability of damages to a spouse under the state’s Wrongful Death Act.

  • August 16, 2024

    Federal Circuit Vacates Preliminary Injunction In E-Cigarette Trademark Dispute

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — A federal judge in Florida was wrong to issue a preliminary injunction against a Chinese e-cigarette manufacturer and its American wholesalers in a trademark and patent dispute brought by an American e-cigarette maker, a panel of judges in the Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals held, saying that the judge did not adequately consider the Chinese company’s argument that the American manufacturer did not have a valid claim to the contested mark because it did not seek approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for its product.

  • August 08, 2024

    Judge Finds Montana Preempted From Banning Indian Tobacco Company

    GREAT FALLS, Mont. — A Montana federal judge ruled that federal law preempted Montana Attorney General Austin Knudsen from removing Grand River Enterprises Six Nations Ltd. (GRE) from the state’s approved tobacco sellers list because the AG improperly took action based on an alleged violation of federal law.

  • August 06, 2024

    Tribe’s Internal Tobacco Sales Exempt From MSA Enforcement, 8th Circuit Rules

    ST. LOUIS — An Eighth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel affirmed in part a Nebraska federal judge’s ruling enjoining the state from enforcing Master Settlement Agreement (MSA) regulations on tobacco sales by two subsidiaries of a Winnebago Tribe-owned company as to tribal member-to-member sales, but said the state can regulate sales to nonmembers.

  • August 05, 2024

    5th Circuit Vacates More FDA Marketing Denials For Flavored Vape Companies

    NEW ORLEANS — A Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel vacated Food and Drug Administration marketing denial orders (MDOs) banning the products of five flavored vape companies after finding “no basis to distinguish this case” from an earlier en banc Fifth Circuit reversal of FDA flavored vape bans now pending before the U.S Supreme Court.

  • August 05, 2024

    Florida High Court Won’t Review Engle Residency In $2.5M Win For Smoker’s Estate

    TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — The Florida Supreme Court on Aug. 2 denied two tobacco companies’ petition to review an appellate panel’s opinion affirming a $2.5 million verdict in favor of the estate of a smoker who died from lung cancer, declining to accept jurisdiction over the tobacco companies’ argument that the smoker was not an Engle member and primarily resided in New York.

  • August 02, 2024

    Juul, Noteholders Settle Delaware Chancery Court Debt Conversion Row

    WILMINGTON, Del. — A vice chancellor of the Delaware Chancery Court granted a joint stipulation settling all claims brought by a group of financial entities against Juul Labs Inc. (JLI) that had opposed a JLI plan to convert notes that they contended were worth $1.9 billion into less valuable equity in an alleged plan by “certain JUUL insiders to plunder the Company for their own benefit.”

  • August 02, 2024

    Nicotine Pouch Consumer Files Putative Class Action Alleging False Youth Marketing

    HARTFORD, Conn. — A consumer of Zyn nicotine pouches filed a putative class action in Connecticut federal court accusing Philip Morris International Inc. (PM) and Swedish Match North America LLC of violating Florida consumer protection statutes by targeting youth and deceptively advertising the products as a “safer and healthier alternative to smoking.”

  • July 30, 2024

    Dead Smoker’s Kids Defend $6M Verdict Against Tobacco Company’s ‘Forgery’ Theory

    MIAMI — A smoker’s children on Jan. 29 filed an answer brief in the Florida Third District Court of Appeal urging affirmance of a $6 million verdict against a tobacco company, arguing that the company’s argument that records of the dead smoker being diagnosed with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) were forged is undercut by other evidence introduced at trial.

  • July 29, 2024

    Tribe Defends PACT Act Challenge From DOJ’s Bid For Summary Judgment

    RIVERSIDE, Calif. — A Native American tribe’s on July 26 filed its opposition in California federal court to a motion for summary judgment filed by U.S. government agencies and officials, arguing that disputes of fact exist regarding the tribes’ claims that the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives improperly seeks to deem the tribe out of compliance with the Prevent All Cigarette Trafficking (PACT) Act.

  • July 25, 2024

    Magistrate Judge Denies Bid To Stay Discovery In UCL Suit Against Vape Sellers

    SAN DIEGO — A California federal magistrate judge on July 24 denied a group of online e-cigarette retailers’ ex parte motion to stay discovery in a lawsuit brought against them along with several Chinese e-cigarette manufacturers by e-cigarette maker NJOY LLC, an Altria Group Inc. subsidiary, for allegedly violating California’s unfair competition law (UCL) and federal cigarette regulations by illegally selling “Elf Bar”-brand flavored disposable vapes (FDVs).

  • July 23, 2024

    FDA Asks Court To Drop Required Status Reports On E-Cigarette Approvals

    BALTIMORE — The Food and Drug Administration on July 22 filed a motion in Maryland federal court asking for relief from a two-year-old order requiring it to provide the court regular status reports on its progress reviewing premarket tobacco applications (PMTA) for top-selling e-cigarette brands, writing that the “obligation has now outlived its original purpose” and that it should not be required to file reports about progress on the final pending PMTA.

  • July 10, 2024

    Flavored Vape Wholesalers Remove New York’s Suit After Injunction Sought

    NEW YORK — Two sellers of flavored disposable vapes removed state court claims brought against them by the city of New York to the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, one week after the city moved for a preliminary injunction barring them and several other wholesalers of from continuing to sell vapes in violation of state and federal law.

  • July 10, 2024

    Tobacco Company Not Liable For Smoker’s Laryngeal Cancer Death, Jury Says

    MIAMI — A Miami-Dade County, Fla., 11th Judicial Circuit Court jury issued a verdict awarding no damages and finding a tobacco company not liable for claims that it defectively designed Virginia Slims cigarettes and caused a smoker’s death from laryngeal cancer. VIDEO FROM THE TRIAL IS AVAILABLE.

  • July 10, 2024

    Health Groups Seek Hearing On ‘Political’ Delay Of Menthol Cigarette Ban

    SAN FRANCISCO — Three health advocacy organizations filed supplementary materials in support of their motion for administrative relief seeking a hearing on the speed with which a California federal court hears their lawsuit accusing the Food and Drug Administration, affiliated agencies and their leaders of unlawfully delaying a federal ban of menthol cigarettes.

  • July 09, 2024

    First Nations’ Cigarette Maker Asks To Stay Challenge To Oregon ‘Equity’ Law

    EUGENE, Ore. — A Canadian First Nations-owned cigarette manufacturer and Oregon on July 8 filed a joint motion in Oregon federal court to stay the manufacturer’s lawsuit over the state’s new payment requirement based on cigarette sales pending the outcome of an appeal of a parallel state court ruling that the requirement violates the state Constitution.

  • July 09, 2024

    Smoker’s Daughter Opposes Tobacco Companies’ ‘Survivor’ Challenge To $2.1M Verdict

    WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — A smoker’s daughter in a July 8 brief urges a Florida appellate court to reject arguments by two tobacco companies that she is not the smoker’s “survivor” under the Wrongful Death Act and therefore is entitled to only $7,000 of a $2.1 million compensatory damages verdict, arguing that the tobacco companies’ seek to “rewrite” the statute.

  • July 09, 2024

    Smoker’s Estate Opposes Florida High Court Review Of Engle Residency Requirements

    TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — A smoker’s estate argues in an answer brief that the Florida Supreme Court should not review an appellate panel’s opinion affirming a $2.5 million verdict against two tobacco companies for the smoker’s death from lung cancer, writing that the panel’s holding that she was an Engle member despite also residing in New York does not conflict with any other case.

  • July 08, 2024

    Menthol Vape Makers Urge High Court To Deny FDA’s Challenge To Forum

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — R.J. Reynolds Vapor Co. (RJRV) and affiliated entities filed a brief in the U.S. Supreme Court opposing the Food and Drug Administration’s petition for a writ of certiorari challenging a Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel’s finding of jurisdiction over RJRV and retailers’ challenge to an FDA ban of menthol-flavored e-cigarette products.

  • July 08, 2024

    Court Dismisses Juul’s Petition After FDA Rescinds Marketing Denial Order

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — The District of Columbia Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals dismissed a petition for review filed by Juul Labs Inc. (JLI) challenging the Food and Drug Administration’s marketing denial order (MDO) issued to JLI in 2022, granting JLI and FDA’s joint motion for dismissal filed after the FDA formally rescinded the MDO to conduct a new review of JLI’s products.

  • July 02, 2024

    U.S. High Court Grants FDA’s Petition In Case Over Flavored E-Cig Regulations

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court on July 2 granted a petition for certiorari filed by the Food and Drug Administration after the en banc Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals reversed the FDA’s marketing denial orders (MDOs) for certain flavored e-cigarette products as arbitrary and capricious.

  • June 28, 2024

    High Court Overrules Chevron Deference, Changes Standard For Regulatory Review

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court on June 28 voted 6-3 to overrule the doctrine of Chevron deference as incompatible with the Administrative Procedure Act (APA) in two cases arising out of federal fishing regulations, changing governing precedent for federal courts reviewing agencies’ regulatory actions.