On March 4, 2013, the Office of the New York Attorney General filed a lawsuit against Grand River Enterprises Six Nations, Ltd., Native Wholesale Supply Company Inc., Jerry Montour, Jr. and Kenneth Hill in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York.  Grand River, a Canadian-based manufacturer, sells cigarettes throughout the United States.  Native Wholesale Supply, a New York-based distributor, purchases Grand River cigarettes for resale in New York.  The Plaintiff’s four-count complaint alleges violations of: (1) the Contraband Cigarette Trafficking Act; (2) the PACT Act; and (3) New York Tax Law.

REMINDER:  All employers covered under the Family and Medical Leave Act (”FMLA”) were mandated by the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) to display the new FMLA poster by March 8, 2013.

Background:  Twenty years ago, President Bill Clinton signed the FMLA into law.  The law, requiring all employers with 50 or more employees to provide job-protected and unpaid leave for qualified medical and family reasons, ranks as one of the most insidious and complicated federal statutes for employers. Instead of using the FMLA’s 20th anniversary as a catalyst to provide FMLA clarifications, the DOL instead, issued additional federal regulations that implement statutory changes ensuring the FMLA will continue to be one of the biggest compliance headaches for covered employers.

Poster Revisions:  The poster revisions include

The new head of FDA’s Center for Tobacco Products, Mitchell Zeller, started work this week.

Zeller (who is a trained lawyer) has a long record in tobacco control, having led FDA’s failed effort in the mid-1990s to regulate tobacco products.  The U.S. Supreme Court rejected that effort, finding that FDA lacked congressional authority to regulate tobacco products.  Now that FDA has been given congressional authority, Zeller takes over as head of those efforts, assuming the position held by Dr. Lawrence Deyton since the inception of FDA’s tobacco authority.

A bill pending in the Utah legislature, House Bill 372, would tax and regulate electronic cigarettes as tobacco products under Utah law.

If enacted, the bill would redefine the term “tobacco product” to include e-cigarettes and cartridges.  This would impose the tobacco products tax on e-cigarettes, which is 86% of…

We reported last month on a bill in Mississippi that would have nearly doubled the fee applicable to non-signatories to the state’s tobacco settlement agreement.  We can now report that the bill has died in committee, and it therefore appears that the fee will remain at its current rate of 27 cents per pack

Bryan Haynes of the Troutman Sanders Tobacco practice was recently quoted in The Atlantic article, “The FDA is Keeping New Cigarettes Off the Market“.

Haynes explains why tobacco companies believe this violates the obvious intent of the law. “Why would you have a 180-day review for a presumably

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The Tobacco Control Act requires specific health warnings for smokeless tobacco products.  The packaging and advertising of smokeless tobacco products must contain one of the following four specified warning statements:

  • WARNING: This product can cause mouth cancer.
  • WARNING: This product can cause gum disease and tooth loss.
  • WARNING: This product is not a safe alternative to cigarettes.
  • WARNING: Smokeless tobacco is addictive.  

On February 26, 2013, the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit affirmed the Southern District of New York’s ruling upholding a New York City local ordinance that prohibits the sale of flavored tobacco products, including smokeless tobacco, anywhere in the city other than at existing “tobacco bars.”  As we reported in a December 15, 2011 blog post, Plaintiffs U.S. Smokeless Tobacco Manufacturing Company, LLC and U.S. Smokeless Tobacco Brands Inc. sued the City of New York, challenging a city ordinance on grounds that the ordinance is preempted by the federal Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act (“Tobacco Control Act”).  The District Court awarded summary judgment in favor of the City and dismissed the lawsuit.

Fox’s Washington, D.C. affiliate WTTG recently did a report on electronic cigarettes.  The report discusses the recent popularity of e-cigarettes, and cites an FDA statement that “FDA intends to propose regulation that would extend the agency’s ‘tobacco product’ authorities … further research is needed to assess the potential public health…