Photo of Robert Claiborne

Robert Claiborne

Subscribe to Robert Claiborne's Posts

Status report concerns FDA’s review of 240 PMTAs submitted on or before September 9, 2020, for vapor products with larger market shares.  FDA estimates that it will resolve most of these in the periods before July 2022 and from April through June 2023.

Pursuant to an order entered by Judge Paul W. Grimm in American Academy of Pediatrics, et al. v. FDA, et al., No. 8:18-cv-00883 (D. Md.), on May 13, 2022, FDA filed its first status report regarding its review of pending premarket tobacco applications (“PMTAs”) for certain popular vapor products.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit has denied the Plaintiffs’/Appellants’ petition for a rehearing en banc following a divided panel’s holding that the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act neither expressly nor impliedly preempts Los Angeles County’s ban on the sale of flavored tobacco products.

On May 11, 2022, a divided panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit denied a petition for rehearing en banc filed by Plaintiffs/Appellants R.J. Reynolds Tobacco, Inc., American Snuff Co., and Santa Fe Natural Tobacco Co. (together, the “Plaintiffs/Appellants”) in R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co., et al. v. Los Angeles County, et al., No. 20-55930.  As discussed more fully by Troutman Pepper in Vapor Voice, the same panel earlier held in a split 2-1 decision that Los Angeles County’s flavored tobacco ban is not preempted by the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act, Pub. L. No. 111-31, 123 Stat. 1776 (June 22, 2009) (the “TCA”).

New Virginia law addresses excise taxation and other requirements regarding remote retail sales of cigars and pipe tobacco to consumers in the Commonwealth.

On April 27, 2022, the Virginia General Assembly passed House Bill 1199 and Senate Bill 748 regarding the application of the Commonwealth’s tobacco products tax on “remote retail sales” of cigars and pipe tobacco and related requirements.

Under Judge Grimm’s Revised Remedial Order, FDA must submit quarterly status reports regarding its review of pending PMTAs for certain popular vapor products.

On April 15, 2022, Judge Paul W. Grimm of the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland ordered  FDA to submit status reports to the Court and to the Plaintiffs in the case every ninety days, beginning on April 29th.

The U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania entered a permanent injunction against Philadelphia’s enforcement of an ordinance banning the sale of certain flavored tobacco products, after the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit upheld a preliminary injunction against the same.

Litigation over a local flavor ban came to a close on March 8, 2022, with Judge Gene E.K. Pratter of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania entering a permanent injunction:

  • prohibiting the City of Philadelphia from enforcing City Ordinance No. 180457 (the “Ordinance”); and
  • requiring the City to void and withdraw any and all regulations regarding the Ordinance.

The case is Cigar Association of America, et al. v. City of Philadelphia, et al., No. 2:20-cv-03220 (E.D. Pa.).

The U.S. Postal Service (USPS) has made available the Field Information Kit and Management Instructions referenced in its November 4, 2021 Postal Bulletin, correcting hyperlinks in the Postal Bulletin. The Field Information Kit and the Management Instruction are posted to the USPS website, available here and here, respectively.

On February 19, 2021, a proposed rule from the U.S. Postal Service (the “USPS”), regarding the treatment of electronic nicotine delivery systems (“ENDS”) in the mail, was published in the Federal Register. The USPS will receive comments on or before March 22, 2021.

On December 22, 2020, we blogged about the omnibus 2021 Consolidated Appropriations Act passed by Congress, which included legislation extending the applicability of the Prevent All Cigarette Trafficking (“PACT”) Act to electronic nicotine delivery systems or “ENDS.”  The legislation, called the ‘‘Preventing Online Sales of E-Cigarettes to Children Act,’’ sweeps ENDS into the PACT Act by amending the PACT Act’s definition of a cigarette to include electronic nicotine delivery systems, thereby subjecting remote sales of these products to various requirements and restrictions.  Another important feature of this new law is that the defined term “ENDS” in this new legislation actually covers more than electronic nicotine delivery systems.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit will review a preliminary injunction against Philadelphia’s enforcement of an ordinance banning the sale of certain flavored tobacco products.

Will a preliminary injunction against Philadelphia’s flavored tobacco ban stand? The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit will have the opportunity to decide in Cigar Association of America, et al. v. City of Philadelphia, et al., No. 20-3519 (3d Cir.), appealed from, No. 2:20-cv-03220 (E.D. Pa. Nov. 13, 2020).