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Over the last decade, hundreds of localities have passed ordinances restricting or prohibiting the sale of some or all types of tobacco products. Some of these ordinances have been challenged in court, but, in most cases, the localities have prevailed. In this case, a group of retailers (the Retailers), sued Multnomah County, Oregon (the County) in January 2023 alleging that the County’s flavored tobacco product ban was unlawful. Earlier this month, consistent with the overall trend, the court ruled against the Retailers and upheld the County’s flavor ban.

Last summer, we wrote about the Iowa Attorney General’s $133 million suit against the tobacco manufacturers that are signatories to the Master Settlement Agreement (MSA).  Brought in Iowa state court, this suit alleged that those manufacturers (commonly referred to as “Participating Manufacturers”) acted in bad faith by disputing (and delaying the ultimate payment of) the amounts they owe to the state under the MSA. On August 22, 2023, Iowa compromised its past and future claims under the lawsuit and joined 37 other states that have settled similar disputes. Iowa Attorney General Brenna Bird announced that the state reached a settlement with the Participating Manufacturers that will result in the state receiving payments of more than $171 million over the next six years.  

On August 22, 2023, the Troutman Pepper Tobacco + Nicotine Team attended the Food and Drug Administration’s Center for Tobacco Products (“CTP”) virtual listening session on the development of CTP’s strategic plan.  We previously blogged about CTP’s intent to issue a finalized five-year strategic plan by December 2023, including the agency’s five proposed strategic goals. 

Oregon has enacted a new “equity assessment” upon non-signatories to the tobacco Master Settlement Agreement (MSA).  We previously blogged about the bill’s introduction. The law replaces Oregon’s escrow deposit system, applicable to tobacco product manufacturers that are nonparticipating manufacturers (NPMs) under the MSA, with an equity assessment.

The Food and Drug Administration’s Center for Tobacco Products (“CTP”) will hold a two-day public meeting on the agency’s premarket tobacco product application (“PMTA”) process. The meeting will be held October 23-24 and can be attended in person in Silver Spring, Maryland, or online.

CTP’s press release indicates that staff…

Yesterday, August 9, 2023, Judge Amit P. Mehta of the US District Court for the District of Columbia issued his decision vacating the decision of the Food and Drug Administration (“FDA”) to “deem” premium cigars covered by FDA’s 2016 rule that swept all tobacco products under the same set of regulations.  In previous decisions, the District Court already had vacated the portions of the Deeming Rule that required premium cigars to display health warnings on packaging and advertising and to engage in the burdensome premarket authorization process. 

Agustin Rodriguez and Nicholas Ramos of the Troutman Pepper Tobacco Team will be attending the 2023 Federation of Tax Administration (FTA) Tobacco Section Annual Conference. This in-person event will be held in Tucson, Arizona from August 20-23, 2023, and presents a great opportunity for government and industry members to collaborate…

FDA recently announced the issuance of warnings letters to 189 retailers found to be selling unauthorized tobacco products, specifically Elf Bars and Esco Bars.

As a result of the passage of the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act (TCA), new tobacco products may only be sold in the U.S. if they have received marketing authorization from FDA. Products with pending premarket applications are currently subject to FDA’s enforcement discretion. According to FDA, Elf Bars and Esco Bars have neither received marketing authorization, nor have applications pending with the agency, and therefore cannot be lawfully sold.

Published in Law360 on June 27, 2023. © Copyright 2023, Portfolio Media, Inc., publisher of Law360. Reprinted here with permission.

On May 11, R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. Inc. went on the offensive to keep its new line of nonmenthol cigarettes marketed with language like “crisp,” “smooth” and “mellow” on store shelves in California.[1]

This suit, R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. v. Bonta, seeks declaratory relief in the Superior Court of California, County of Fresno, that California’s attorney general misinterpreted and misapplied the state’s ban on flavored tobacco products, and incorrectly concluded that R.J. Reynolds’ new products violate this ban.

This is the fifth post in our multipart series evaluating the Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA’s) response to the Reagan-Udall Foundation report (the Report) on the operations of the Center for Tobacco Products (CTP). If you missed our prior posts on the Report and FDA’s response, check them out at the links below:

In this segment of our series evaluating FDA’s response to the Report, we review a subset of the Report’s recommendations and responses from two CTP Task Forces — “Public Education Campaigns” and “Resources.”