In an August 27, 2012 letter to FDA Commissioner Margaret Hamburg, Representative Henry Waxman (the architect of the Tobacco Control Act giving FDA regulatory authority over tobacco products) again urged FDA to assert jurisdiction over cigars and pipe tobacco.  Representative Waxman complained that the 2009 increase on federal excise taxes for tobacco products resulted in many manufacturers relabeling and/or reconfiguring their products from little cigars to large cigars, and from roll-your-own cigarette tobacco to pipe tobacco.

The major tobacco companies are again lobbying for legislation in Texas that would impose special taxes on small cigarette manufacturers that have not settled with the state for tobacco-related claims.

Texas is one of only four states that are not signatories to the 1998 tobacco Master Settlement Agreement (Minnesota, Mississippi…

Troutman Sanders Tobacco practice partner Bryan Haynes was quoted in a recent article in Law360 regarding the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals’ decision rejecting FDA’s graphic warning label requirements.  The article can be found here or by request at tobacco@troutmansanders.com.

For questions and/or comments, please contact Bryan Haynes,

The US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia today struck down the FDA graphic warning label requirement, which sets up a potential challenge before the US Supreme Court on this subject.  This result is opposite to an earlier ruling from another circuit, thus providing an opening for further appeal to the US Supreme Court.

Often, the most significant impression a customer has of a company comes from the company’s website.  An attractive, well-organized and easy to use website is crucial in today’s “click and buy” economy.  A company’s website also can represent a large investment, especially for a small manufacturer or retailer.

The process of creating a website, however, can be time-consuming and filled with unexpected hurdles. 

Part I of this post addressed the content that appears on your company website – both content you create or that was created for you and content generated by users of your website.  Today, we will look at the various technologies for collecting information from users – often without their knowledge or explicit consent – and the rules governing the use and protection of that information.

  • Does your website track visitors’ activities through “cookies” or “web beacons”?

The Massachusetts legislature has introduced a measure that would impose tobacco excise taxes on e-cigarettes.

House bill number 4291, introduced by the Joint Committee on Health Care Financing on July 19, 2012, would impose substantial excise tax increases on other tobacco products, such as cigars, smoking tobacco and smokeless tobacco. 

Apparently frustrated with FDA’s delays in approving new tobacco products, Lorillard Tobacco Company has filed a citizen petition requesting that FDA exercise enforcement discretion to allow marketing of such products, so long as the manufacturer has submitted a report under Section 905(j) of the Tobacco Control Act at least 90 days before introducing the product.