Bryan Haynes of Troutman Pepper’s Tobacco Team was quoted in a recent article in Bloomberg Law discussing FDA’s recent proposals to ban menthol in cigarettes and “characterizing flavors” in cigars.

Haynes noted that FDA “has authority to implement tobacco product standards,” but that this authority is “not without limits.”  Haynes also noted that bans on menthol and flavored cigars could “penalize responsible companies and drive this activity into the black market.  This is particular concern where there is “already a whole host of unauthorized products on the market that FDA is doing very little to nothing to take enforcement action against.”