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Mealey's Tobacco

  • October 07, 2025

    High Court Won’t Review $95M Verdict In E-Cigarette Patent Row

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court on Oct. 6 denied a petition for a writ of certiorari filed by e-cigarette company R.J. Reynolds Vapor Co. (RJR), which sought review of a Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel’s ruling upholding a more than $95 million jury verdict against RJR for infringing three Altria Client Services LLC patents for pod-based e-cigarettes.

  • October 06, 2025

    Key ERISA Claims Survive Dismissal In Yet Another Tobacco Surcharge Challenge

    MEMPHIS, Tenn. — The tally of challenges to health plan tobacco surcharges that have at least partly survived dismissal continues to grow, with a Tennessee federal judge letting key claims continue in a putative class action that is part of a recent wave of similar lawsuits.

  • October 03, 2025

    Hawaii Smoker May Seek Punitive Damages For Personal Harm Only, Judge Says

    LIHUE, Hawaii — A Hawaii state judge granted in part and denied in part two tobacco companies’ motion to dismiss a personal injury lawsuit filed against them by a smoker with bladder cancer and his wife, dismissing the smoker’s claim for fraud and partly dismissing his claim for punitive damages, writing that the smoker may seek punitives for “harm to himself,” but not harm to “society.”

  • October 01, 2025

    DOJ Sues Vape Distributors For Selling Unauthorized Products

    After the Food and Drug Administration and other agencies announced the seizure of $86.5 million worth of unauthorized vape products, the Department of Justice filed 12 complaints in federal courts across the country seeking permanent injunctive relief against businesses and associated individuals who are alleged to have marketed misbranded electronic nicotine delivery systems (ENDS) including e-cigarettes and flavored e-liquids from Hong Kong and China despite previous warnings.

  • September 30, 2025

    Judge Remands Suit Against Nicotine Pouch Sellers, Denies Attorney Fees

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — A District of Columbia federal judge granted a nonprofit health group’s motion to remand its lawsuit accusing two companies that sell Zyn nicotine pouches of false marketing to the District of Columbia Superior Court after finding that federal jurisdiction does not exist over the case and denied the nonprofit’s motion for attorney fees.

  • September 25, 2025

    Oral Arguments Held In Appeal Of $475K Punitive Award For Smoker’s Estate

    WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — Attorneys representing a tobacco company urged the Fourth District Florida Court of Appeal during oral arguments on Sept. 24 to reverse or order remittitur of a $475,000 punitive damages verdict awarded in favor of the estate of a dead smoker, arguing that the award is excessive because it is 11 times greater than the compensatory damages the estate was awarded.

  • September 22, 2025

    Judge Dismisses Antitrust Claims Against Nicotine Pouch Maker, Tobacco Company

    RICHMOND, Va. — A Virginia federal judge dismissed with prejudice a Zyn nicotine pouch consumer’s putative class action against the maker of the pouches and its parent company for violating state and federal antitrust laws by allegedly conspiring to create a monopoly over the nicotine pouch market and intentionally slowing production to increase prices after finding that the plaintiff never alleged that the defendants were “horizontal competitors.”

  • September 19, 2025

    Tobacco Defendants Object To Opening Statements In Widow’s Wrongful Death Suit

    SPRINGFIELD, Mass. — Two tobacco companies and a local retailer filed objections to certain allegedly improper comments in the opening statement of a smoker’s widow after her wrongful death trial kicked off in Massachusetts state court, where the widow claims that her husband was deceived by the tobacco companies into believing filtered cigarettes were safer before he died from lung cancer at age 55. VIDEO FROM THE TRIAL IS AVAILABLE.

  • September 18, 2025

    FDA Says High Court Precedent Bars Ban Challenge By Vape Maker, Retailer

    NEW ORLEANS — The Food and Drug Administration, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and their respective leaders filed a brief urging the Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals to deny a petition for review filed by an e-liquids manufacturer and a retailer, which argue that the FDA in banning sales of the manufacturer’s products improperly disregarded its “adult-oriented branding and trade dress.”

  • September 17, 2025

    Law Firms Dismissed From Chinese Vape Dispute After Arbitration Compelled

    LOS ANGELES — A California e-cigarette technology company and its owners, along with two law firms, filed in California federal court a joint stipulation of dismissal of all claims against the law firms for claims related to their representation of a Chinese company that distributed vape devices after the company’s owner won a motion to compel arbitration of all claims against him.

  • September 16, 2025

    Judge Refuses To Enjoin Fresno Regulation Of Smoke Shops

    SACRAMENTO, Calif. — A California federal judge denied a smoke shop industry association’s motion for a preliminary injunction barring enforcement of a new ordinance in Fresno, Calif., that regulates smoke shops and bars the sale of flavored tobacco, finding the association is not likely to prevail on its claims of violations of the U.S. and California constitutions.

  • September 16, 2025

    9th Circuit Affirms Fee Sanction For Misconduct In Cigar Antitrust Case

    SAN FRANCISCO — The Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals has affirmed a district court’s award of attorney fees and costs to a cigar maker as sanctions for misconduct by another cigar manufacturer in the latter’s 10-year-old antitrust and breach of contract lawsuit, finding that the trial court properly exercised its inherent authority to reach a “holistic and equitable resolution of this protracted dispute.”

  • September 15, 2025

    Tobacco Companies Seek Dismissal Of Suit By Hawaiian Smoker With Lung Cancer

    HILO, Hawaii — Three tobacco companies facing a personal injury lawsuit filed in Hawaii state court against them and local retailers by a smoker with lung cancer moved to strike the plaintiff’s prayer for punitive damages, which they say is barred by the doctrine of res judicata based on Hawaii’s entry into the Master Settlement Agreement (MSA), and her fraud-based claims for lack of specificity.

  • September 12, 2025

    Judge Won’t Enjoin Wisconsin Vape Directory Law Pending Appeal to 7th Circuit

    MADISON, Wis. — A Wisconsin federal judge denied a motion for a preliminary injunction pending an appeal to the Seventh Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals by the vaping advocacy group, e-cigarette retailers and two e-cigarette users who recently lost their bid to bar enforcement of a Wisconsin law that enacts a new tobacco product directory and bans the sale of certain synthetic nicotine e-cigarette products.

  • September 11, 2025

    D.C. Attorney General Says 7-Eleven To Pay $1.2M For Vape Sales Near Schools

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — The attorney general of the District of Columbia released an assurance of voluntary compliance entered into between his office and convenience store operator 7-Eleven Inc., pursuant to which the company will pay $1.2 million for selling vapes and e-cigarettes in proximity to District of Columbia schools.

  • September 11, 2025

    California Seeks $1.1M In Penalties Against Flavored Vape Seller

    FRESNO, Calif. — A California federal judge discharged an order to show cause why the CEO of a vape retail company should not be sanctioned after the director updated his address on the docket, one day after the California Attorney General’s Office moved for summary judgment seeking a more than $1.1 million fine against the CEO and his company for violating federal and state tobacco laws and California’s unfair competition law (UCL) by selling disposable flavored vape products without a license or youth restrictions.

  • September 10, 2025

    Tobacco Company Urges Reversal Of $11.5M Verdict For Smoker’s Death

    MIAMI — A tobacco company in a Sept. 9 cross-appellant brief urges the Florida Third District Court of Appeal to reverse an $11.5 million judgment against it in favor of the widow of a smoker who died from lung cancer, writing that the court allowed “unreliable” evidence on the smoker’s Engle class membership and that punitive damages deliberations were also tainted by improper evidence.

  • September 09, 2025

    Challenge To Tobacco, Vaccination Surcharges Partly Survives Dismissal

    CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Continuing a string of at least partial victories for plaintiffs in putative class cases over health plan tobacco surcharges, a North Carolina federal judge ruled that two of three claims against GardaWorld Cash Service Inc. survive dismissal; one of the surviving claims concerns the tobacco surcharge, and the other concerns a surcharge levied against those who didn’t show that they were fully vaccinated against COVID-19 by a certain date.

  • September 08, 2025

    Tobacco Companies Say 2 Hawaii Smokers Can’t Seek Punitive Damages

    Tobacco companies that are seeking dismissal of two personal injury lawsuits filed against them in Hawaii state courts by smokers with bladder cancer argue that the plaintiffs’ claims for punitive damages are barred by the doctrine of res judicata based on Hawaii’s entry into the Master Settlement Agreement (MSA) with tobacco companies and that their other claims are not sufficiently alleged.

  • September 08, 2025

    Vape Group, Retailers Appeal After Judge Refuses To Enjoin Wisconsin Directory Law

    MADISON, Wis. — A vaping advocacy group, e-cigarette retailers and two e-cigarette users filed notice of an interlocutory appeal in Wisconsin federal court on Sept. 5, the same day that a federal judge denied their motion for a preliminary injunction enjoining a Wisconsin law that would ban the sale of certain synthetic nicotine e-cigarette products after finding the law within the state’s authority.

  • September 08, 2025

    Dead Smoker’s Estate Drops Appeal Of Loss Against Tobacco Company

    WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — A Florida appellate panel entered an order of dismissal of the estate of a dead smoker’s appeal of a jury’s defense verdict awarding no damages on her claims that two tobacco companies concealed the risks of smoking and caused her death from lung cancer after she smoked cigarettes daily for more than six decades.

  • September 05, 2025

    Court Compels Tobacco Company Arbitration Of $277M State Settlement

    SEATTLE — A Washington state court judge granted an opposed motion by Philip Morris USA Inc. (PM) to compel arbitration of claims brought against it by R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. and other tobacco companies for allegedly making underpayments pursuant to a settlement, to which PM was not a party, that they reached with the state over payment obligations under the 1998 master settlement agreement (MSA).

  • September 05, 2025

    Dead Smoker’s Daughter Seeks Review After Tobacco Company Wins Appeal

    BOSTON — The daughter of a dead smoker filed an application to the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court for further appellate review (FAR) after the Massachusetts Appeals Court affirmed a trial court’s dismissal of her lawsuit against a tobacco company for causing the smoker’s lung cancer and death after smoking for more than 25 years, for which a jury awarded no damages.

  • September 04, 2025

    Hearing Held On Viability Of Juul Share Dilution Claims

    WILMINGTON, Del. — A hearing was held Sept. 3 in the Delaware Chancery Court on motions filed by Juul Labs Inc. (JLI), its founders and board members and affiliated investment vehicles to dismiss a derivative complaint accusing them of breach of fiduciary duty for allegedly orchestrating financing that diluted the value of JLI shares before giving 1.2 billion JLI shares to the investment vehicles at a low price.

  • September 03, 2025

    Appeal In Smoker’s Death Dismissed After $9.3M Judgment Satisfied

    A Florida appellate court dismissed an appeal filed by tobacco company R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. (RJR) of a more than $9.3 million verdict against it for causing the death of a smoker from coronary artery disease (CAD) and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) after the parties confirmed before the trial court that the full judgment has been satisfied.