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Mealey's Tobacco

  • June 13, 2025

    8th Circuit Says FDA Properly Banned Menthol E-Cigarettes

    ST. LOUIS — An Eighth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel on June 12 denied a menthol-flavored vape maker’s petition for review of a Food and Drug Administration ban of its products, citing recent U.S. Supreme Court precedent affirming FDA decision-making in other e-cigarette cases and opining that FDA properly provided reasoning for its decision to treat menthol e-cigarettes as similar to other flavored e-cigarettes.

  • June 09, 2025

    Dead Smoker’s Husband, Philip Morris Settle Wrongful Death Suit

    WOBURN, Mass. — The widower of a smoker, tobacco company Philip Morris USA Inc. (PM) and local retailers that sold the smoker Marlboro Lights entered a notice of settlement just days into a wrongful death trial in Massachusetts state court where the widower had told jurors his wife smoked light cigarettes because she thought they were healthier before dying from lung cancer at age 64. VIDEO OF THE TRIAL IS AVAILABLE.

  • June 09, 2025

    Antitrust Pricing Suit Against Juul Dismissed For Lack Of Specific Market

    CHICAGO — An Illinois federal judge granted a motion by Juul Labs Inc. (JLI) and one of its wholesalers to dismiss antitrust claims brought by a company that alleged that they undercut its sales of kits containing JLI products and ethanol fuel by offering cheaper prices to competitors, finding that the plaintiff in an amended complaint had failed to include mandatory pleadings regarding the “relevant geographic market” for its claims.

  • June 05, 2025

    $4.95M Deal Gets Final OK In ERISA Tobacco Surcharge Suit That Preceded Wave

    SPRINGFIELD, Mo. — A Missouri federal judge has granted final approval to the $4.95 million class settlement of a suit that was filed months before a recent wave of similar Employee Retirement Income Security Act challenges to health plans’ tobacco surcharges; the named plaintiff said the total represents “approximately 35% of the tobacco surcharges at issue in the full, six-year look-back window.”

  • June 04, 2025

    Texas Supreme Court To Review Tobacco Tax On Nicotine Pouches

    AUSTIN, Texas — The Texas Supreme Court granted a petition filed by Texas officials for review of an appellate court’s ruling that a state tobacco tax law does not apply to nicotine pouch and lozenge products made with “nicotine isolate” that is manufactured from tobacco.

  • June 03, 2025

    E-Liquid Companies Tell 5th Circuit Inflexible FDA Rules Are Too ‘Burdensome’

    NEW ORLEANS — Small e-liquid makers and a vaping industry association argue in a June 2 appellant brief in the Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals that a district court judge erred by rejecting their claim that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s regulation of vaping is so “burdensome” it effectively bars small companies from entering the market, in violation of the Regulatory Flexibility Act (RFA).

  • June 02, 2025

    Iowa Appeals Ruling Enjoining New E-Cigarette Registry Law As Preempted

    DES MOINES, Iowa — Iowa on May 30 filed notice in Iowa federal court that it is appealing a recent ruling in favor of a vaping advocacy association and five vape companies enjoining the state’s new law regulating sales of e-cigarettes as preempted by federal tobacco regulations to the Eighth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals.

  • June 02, 2025

    Judge Consolidates Class Discovery In Deceptive Marketing Zyn Suits

    MIAMI — A Florida federal judge on May 30 granted an unopposed motion by the companies that manufacture and sell Zyn nicotine pouches to consolidate discovery in four pending putative class actions against them for allegedly deceptively marketing the products as nicotine cessation products.

  • June 02, 2025

    Vape Retailers Withdraw Request To Enjoin New Alabama E-Cigarette Law

    MONTGOMERY, Ala. — An Alabama federal judge on May 30 entered an order denying without prejudice a motion for a temporary restraining order filed by a retail trade association and a convenience store owner to stop the state from enforcing an allegedly unconstitutional new tobacco regulation law, after the parties stipulated to an interpretation of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s authority over such products.

  • June 02, 2025

    9th Circuit Affirms Injunction Denial In ‘Alien’ Vape Mark Suit

    SAN FRANCISCO — A Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel affirmed a California federal judge’s denial of a preliminary injunction in a trademark infringement case, finding that the plaintiff failed to show that the defendant vaporizer manufacturers’ alien-themed cannabis marks were likely to be confused with his alien-themed vaporizer marks.

  • May 30, 2025

    $21K Fine For Unauthorized Vape Sale Unconstitutional Under Jarkesy, Vape Shop Says

    ABILENE, Texas — A Texas federal judge on May 29 ordered the federal government to respond within two weeks to a Texas vape shop’s motion for a preliminary injunction seeking to bar administrative proceedings against it by the Food and Drug Administration to enforce a more than $21,000 fine for selling an unauthorized vape product, with the vape shop contending that such a proceeding is unconstitutional under SEC v. Jarkesy.

  • May 30, 2025

    Unsafe Marlboros Lights Made Smoker Increase Habit Before Cancer, Jury Told

    WOBURN, Mass. — The widower of a smoker told a Massachusetts state court jury during opening arguments in a wrongful death lawsuit against tobacco company Philip Morris USA Inc. (PM) and local retailers that the defendants sold defective Marlboro Lights that the decedent thought were healthier but which kept her hooked on smoking until she developed fatal lung cancer and died at age 64. VIDEO OF THE TRIAL IS AVAILABLE.

  • May 29, 2025

    E-Cig Maker Accused Of Deceiving Vapers With ‘Greenwashing’ Claims

    SAN FRANCISCO — Three e-cigarette users filed a putative class complaint on May 28 against R.J. Reynolds Vapor Co. (RJRV) and its affiliates, accusing them of violating California’s unfair competition law (UCL) and other laws by misrepresenting their e-cigarette products to consumers as “carbon-neutral” to boost sales as part of an allegedly deceptive “greenwashing” campaign.

  • May 29, 2025

    Tobacco Shop Closed, Owners To Pay $50K Fine For Flavored Vape Sales

    WATERTOWN, N.Y. — A New York justice entered a consent order and judgment resolving claims brought by the New York Attorney General’s Office against the owners of a tobacco shop found to be selling flavored vape products in violation of state law, who have agreed to pay a $50,000 fine and cease tobacco and nicotine product sales to resolve the action against them and avoid a suspended $3.8 million fine.

  • May 28, 2025

    Vape Retailers Seek To Block New Alabama E-Cigarette Regulations

    MONTGOMERY, Ala. — An Alabama retail trade association and a convenience store owner on May 27 filed a complaint and motion in Alabama federal court asking the court to restrain the state from enforcing a new tobacco law that they say unconstitutionally restricts the sales of e-cigarette products in an attempt to “usurp” the Food and Drug Administration’s enforcement authority over such products.

  • May 28, 2025

    Another ERISA Case Over A Health Plan Tobacco Surcharge Survives Dismissal

    RICHMOND, Va. — Calling Mehlberg v. Compass Grp. USA, Inc. “analogous and compelling persuasive authority,” a Virginia federal judge declined to dismiss a putative class action that is part of a recent wave of similar Employee Retirement Income Security Act suits over health plan tobacco surcharges.

  • May 20, 2025

    Vape Companies Ask Court To Enjoin North Carolina’s New Vape Regulation Law

    RALEIGH, N.C. — An e-cigarette industry association, several vape businesses and an e-cigarette consumer filed a motion in in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of North Carolina, Eastern Division, urging the court to preliminarily enjoin a new North Carolina state law due to take effect June 29 that will prohibit sales of e-cigarette products that contain synthetic nicotine.

  • May 16, 2025

    Federal Judge Grants Preliminary Injunction In ‘Breeze’ Vape Mark Case

    DETROIT — A federal judge in Michigan preliminarily enjoined a vape product company from selling products bearing a mark with the word “breeze,” holding that plaintiff Breeze Smoke LLC adequately illustrated the likelihood of its success on the merits of its trademark infringement claims.

  • May 15, 2025

    Panel Affirms Defense Verdict In Engle Trial Despite ‘Random’ Voir Dire

    MIAMI — A Florida appellate court on May 14 affirmed a jury’s verdict clearing a tobacco company of liability for a smoker’s death from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), rejecting arguments by the smoker’s son that the trial court erred by using the “random jury box method” because it said he failed to preserve the issue for review.

  • May 09, 2025

    Boston Court Enters $13M Judgment In Favor Of Dead Smoker’s Estate

    BOSTON — The Suffolk County, Mass., Superior Court on May 8 entered judgment in favor of a dead smoker’s estate worth more than $13 million in compensatory and punitive damages after a jury found in favor of the estate on its claim that a tobacco company’s “power of coercion conspiracy” caused the smoker’s lung cancer and death. VIDEO FROM THE TRIAL IS AVAILABLE.

  • May 08, 2025

    Baltimore Files Suit Over Sales Of ‘Zyn’ Tobacco Pouches

    BALTIMORE — The mayor and city council of Baltimore on May 7 filed a complaint alleging violations of the city’s consumer protection ordinance based on the sales of Zyn nicotine pouches, accusing the defendants Philip Morris International Inc. (PMI) and two Swedish Match entities of “an extensive campaign to create new nicotine addicts to ensure profits” in part by “ensuring nicotine addiction in the City of Baltimore’s children and adolescents.”

  • May 06, 2025

    Vape Companies, Kentucky Jointly Dismiss Vape Law Case Before 6th Circuit

    CINCINNATI — A vaping industry association and two vape businesses and officials from the state of Kentucky on May 5 filed a joint stipulation of voluntary dismissal to the Sixth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals, approximately one month after the Circuit Court denied the vape entities’ motion to enjoin Kentucky’s new law restricting sales of vaping products not authorized by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration pending appeal.

  • May 05, 2025

    Judge Allows Email Service To Chinese ‘Elf Bar’ Maker In Disposable Vape Suit

    SAN DIEGO — A California federal judge on May 2 granted a motion by e-cigarette maker NJOY LLC, an Altria Group Inc. subsidiary, to allow service by e-mail to a Chinese manufacturer and distributor of Elf Bar-brand e-cigarettes in litigation brought against a variety of mostly China-based online e-cigarette sellers accused of selling flavored disposable vapes (FDVs) in violation of California’s unfair competition law (UCL) and federal cigarette regulations.

  • May 05, 2025

    Iowa’s New E-Cigarette Law Preempted By Federal Rules, Judge Says

    DES MOINES, Iowa — An Iowa federal judge on May 2 granted a motion filed by a vaping advocacy association and five vape companies to preliminarily enjoin the state’s new law regulating sales of e-cigarettes as preempted by federal tobacco regulations but rejected the plaintiffs’ argument that the state’s “differential treatment” of synthetic nicotine vapes violates equal protection.

  • May 02, 2025

    Vape Companies Seek To Block North Carolina’s Law Banning Synthetic Vapes

    RALEIGH, N.C. — An e-cigarette industry association, several vape businesses and an e-cigarette consumer filed a complaint in North Carolina federal court against state government officials, asking the court to enjoin a new state law regulating e-cigarettes that they say would unfairly prohibit sales of popular e-cigarette products containing synthetic nicotine and could drive companies out of business.