In an apparent response to a recent court ruling that disapproved of FDA’s requirements for graphic warning labels on cigarette packages, FDA recently announced that it will be collecting data geared toward ascertaining the effectiveness of the warning labels, particularly on smoking cessation.

In a recent “Notice to Cigarette Distributors Selling in New Mexico,” the New Mexico Attorney General announced that “effective immediately” all distributors must stop selling any product marked as a “small” or “little” cigar unless the product listed is in the state cigarette directory. Since no little cigars are currently listed in the Attorney General’s directory, the notice is an immediate, de facto ban on the product. The notice also purports to require that all little cigars must bear state excise stamps in the same manner as cigarettes.

In the recent election, Missouri voters narrowly defeated (by a margin of 50.8% to 49.2%) a ballot initiative that would have raised state excise taxes on all tobacco products, would have regulated cigarette rolling machines and would have increased the amount of money that nonparticipating manufacturers are required to place into escrow accounts.

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.

Cigar manufacturer Prime Time International has responded to U.S. Representative Henry Waxman’s request that FDA immediately regulate cigars and other tobacco products.  (We previously reported on Representative Waxman’s August 27, 2012 request here.)  Prime Time International’s response, a copy of which can be found here, makes a compelling case for delaying FDA regulation of cigars pending further study. 

Earlier this year, Altria Group Inc. (the parent company of cigarette manufacturer Philip Morris USA) announced that it had purchased for $10 million the naming rights for Richmond’s Landmark Theater.  Some industry observers wondered how this was possible, when regulations promulgated by the Food & Drug Administration pursuant to the Tobacco Control Act generally prohibit cigarette and smokeless tobacco manufacturers from sponsoring athletic, musical, artistic, or other social or cultural events. 

We previously reported that in February 2011, Philip Morris filed a federal lawsuit challenging the United States Department of Agriculture’s (“USDA”) calculation of tobacco buyout assessments under the Fair and Equitable Tobacco Reform Act of 2004 (“FETRA”) for fiscal years 2011-2014.  The lawsuit challenged a USDA regulation providing that buyout assessments for large cigars for fiscal years 2011-2014 would be calculated using the federal excise tax rate (“FET”) in effect in fiscal year 2005, rather than the new increased FET rates that took effect under the Children’s Heath Insurance Program Reauthorization Act (“CHIPRA”) in April 2009.