Category — Legal Issues & Updates

Several tobacco product manufacturers and a retailer recently requested that the United States Supreme Court consider their challenge to FDA’s requirement for graphic warning labels on cigarette packages.  The tobacco companies are requesting that the Supreme Court reverse the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals’ decision finding that the warning label requirement does not violate the First Amendment of the United States Constitution. [Read more →]

Star Scientific and R. J. Reynolds have settled their long-running litigation over Star’s patents covering a curing process that prevents the formation of some cancer-causing chemicals in tobacco. The settlement leaves in place a federal appeals court decision that Star’s patents are not invalid and so removes a potential cloud over the validity of the patents. Star thus can now seek to enforce the patent against other tobacco manufacturers whom it believes are using its patented curing process. [Read more →]

The New Jersey legislature recently introduced a bill that would ban “characterizing flavors” (except tobacco, clove or menthol) in cigars.  (The law’s ban on characterizing flavors in tobacco products currently extends only to cigarettes, thereby mimicking the federal ban.) [Read more →]

The major tobacco companies are again lobbying for legislation in Texas that would impose special taxes on small cigarette manufacturers that have not settled with the state for tobacco-related claims.

Texas is one of only four states that are not signatories to the 1998 tobacco Master Settlement Agreement (Minnesota, Mississippi and Florida are the others).  Those states separately settled their lawsuits against the major tobacco companies.  Minnesota and Mississippi have imposed special taxes on cigarettes made by non-signatories; Florida and Texas have not.

The major tobacco companies have pursued the special tax in Texas since at least 2004.  The major tobacco companies say that the legislation is needed for force the non-signatories to pay for the health care costs associated with smoking, even though the claims that prompted the Texas settlement have never been asserted against the smaller companies.  The Texas Comptroller’s Office has asserted that the legislation would raise revenue, although it may be unconstitutional as a disparate tax.

For questions and/or comments, please contact Bryan Haynes, Troutman Sanders Tobacco Law Team Co-Leader, at 804.697.1420 or by email.

Troutman Sanders Tobacco Team Co-Leader Bryan Haynes was quoted in a recent article in Law360 regarding the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals’ decision rejecting FDA’s graphic warning label requirements.  The article can be found here or by request at tobacco@troutmansanders.com.

For questions and/or comments, please contact Bryan Haynes, Troutman Sanders Tobacco Law Team Co-Leader, at 804.697.1420 or by email.

The US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia today struck down the FDA graphic warning label requirement, which sets up a potential challenge before the US Supreme Court on this subject.  This result is opposite to an earlier ruling from another circuit, thus providing an opening for further appeal to the US Supreme Court. [Read more →]

Often, the most significant impression a customer has of a company comes from the company’s website.  An attractive, well-organized and easy to use website is crucial in today’s “click and buy” economy.  A company’s website also can represent a large investment, especially for a small manufacturer or retailer.

The process of creating a website, however, can be time-consuming and filled with unexpected hurdles.  [Read more →]

Earlier this month, a federal court in the District of Columbia allowed a lawsuit, filed by Lorillard Tobacco and R.J. Reynolds and challenging the composition of FDA’s Tobacco Products Scientific Advisory Committee (TPSAC), to proceed. [Read more →]

Part I of this post addressed the content that appears on your company website – both content you create or that was created for you and content generated by users of your website.  Today, we will look at the various technologies for collecting information from users – often without their knowledge or explicit consent – and the rules governing the use and protection of that information.

• Does your website track visitors’ activities through “cookies” or “web beacons”?

[Read more →]

The Massachusetts legislature has introduced a measure that would impose tobacco excise taxes on e-cigarettes.

House bill number 4291, introduced by the Joint Committee on Health Care Financing on July 19, 2012, would impose substantial excise tax increases on other tobacco products, such as cigars, smoking tobacco and smokeless tobacco.  [Read more →]