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September 04, 2026
GREENSBORO, N.C. — A North Carolina federal judge on Sept. 3 dismissed with prejudice a putative class action against R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Holdings Inc. (RJR) for allegedly sending marketing text messages to a consumer whose telephone number was listed in the national Do Not Call (DNC) registry, writing that the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) “does not create a private cause of action based on unwanted text messages.”
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September 04, 2026
LUBBOCK, Texas — The Food and Drug Administration “cannot do the job” required of it as regulator of new tobacco products under the Tobacco Control Act (TCA), and its rules for such products must be declared unlawful and vacated, write a nicotine pouch manufacturer and a vape company, both subsidiaries of Altria Group Inc., along with a retail association and two retailers, in a complaint filed in Texas federal court.
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September 04, 2026
The First Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals has scheduled oral argument for Sept. 16 in the most advanced appeal arising from a wave of putative class Employee Retirement Income Security Act challenges to tobacco surcharges, and at least five similar appeals are under way.
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September 04, 2026
NEW ORLEANS — The Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals entered an order of dismissal after the U.S. government and a vape seller jointly stipulated to dismiss the government’s appeal of a judge’s ruling vacating a more than $20,000 Food and Drug Administration fine that the judge said was unconstitutionally issued in violation of the company’s right to a jury trial under SEC v. Jarkesy, after the Fifth Circuit recently affirmed a similar ruling in a separate case.
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September 04, 2026
EAST ST. LOUIS, Ill. — An Illinois federal judge remanded to state court a suit brought by the estate of a smoker who died from bladder cancer against a tobacco company and an Illinois chemical company where the smoker formerly worked and was allegedly exposed to hazardous chemicals, after finding that the chemical company was not fraudulently joined to destroy diversity jurisdiction.
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September 04, 2026
NEW ORLEANS — A Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel granted several electronic nicotine delivery systems (ENDS) companies’ consolidated petitions for review, vacated the Food and Drug Administration’s marketing denial orders (MDOs) banning sales of their products in the United States and remanded the cases after finding that the FDA violated the Administrative Procedure Act (APA) by adopting a substantive “comparative efficacy” rule without notice-and-comment rulemaking.
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September 04, 2026
RICHMOND, Va. — Relying on the recent precedent of SEC v. Jarkesy, tobacco company Altria Group Inc. and its subsidiaries that manufacture and sell NJOY vapes filed an appellant brief in the Fourth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals challenging a judge’s denial of their motion to preliminarily enjoin an International Trade Commission (ITC) investigation into NJOY vapes stemming from a patent complaint brought by Juul Labs Inc. (JLI), which the appellants say is a “private” dispute.
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September 03, 2026
PASADENA, Calif. — A Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel affirmed the denial of premium cigar companies’ attempt to preliminarily enjoin enforcement by the California attorney general of the state’s Unflavored Tobacco List statute (UTLS), writing that the companies are not likely to succeed on the merits because the UTLS is not preempted by federal law.
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September 02, 2026
NEW ORLEANS — A Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel on Sept. 1 reversed and remanded a ruling allocating additional liability against two tobacco companies for underpayment of their annual settlement payments to Texas based on a change to federal corporate income tax rates, writing that the payments should be calculated based on the applicable year’s profits rather than the amount set in a 2001 amendment to the settlement agreement.
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August 27, 2026
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Amid an ongoing wave of private enforcement lawsuits concerning health plans’ tobacco surcharges, the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) and other federal agencies on Aug. 26 said they recognize that “enforcement relief and additional clarification may be necessary to mitigate uncertainty for wellness programs that provide a reward to increase healthy choices and behaviors and lower healthcare costs.”
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August 27, 2026
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Philip Morris USA Inc. (PM) filed a petition for a writ of certiorari with the U.S. Supreme Court arguing that Massachusetts’ highest court wrongly affirmed a judgment worth approximately $64 million in favor of the estate of a smoker by “converting” the preemption provision of the Federal Cigarette Labeling and Advertising Act (FCLAA) “into a pleading requirement” in conflict with high court precedent on cigarette labels.
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August 26, 2026
SAN FRANCISCO — Citing its recent ruling denying a similar petition for review of a Food and Drug Administration order banning sales of an electronic nicotine delivery system (ENDS) company’s products, a Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel denied a maker of flavored e-liquids’ petition for review for substantively similar reasons after finding that the FDA properly adopted and applied a “comparative-efficacy framework” to the company’s products.
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August 25, 2026
NEW ORLEANS — Citing the fact that the Food and Drug Administration issued 11 mandatory graphic warnings for cigarettes, instead of the nine warnings specified in the Tobacco Control Act (TCA), a Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel affirmed a judge’s order postponing the effective date for the graphic warnings rule.
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August 17, 2026
SAN FRANCISCO — A Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel denied a vape company’s petition for review of the Food and Drug Administration’s marketing denial order (MDO) prohibiting sales of its fruit- and candy-flavored vapes (also known as electronic nicotine delivery systems, or ENDS), rejecting its arguments that no evidence showed that youth used its product and that the FDA improperly banned its “zero nicotine” products.
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August 11, 2026
HONOLULU — The Hawaii Supreme Court vacated a trial judge’s reduction of a $6 million compensatory damages award to a smoker with lung cancer by nearly half, writing that comparative fault should not have applied after the jury found a tobacco company liable for an intentional tort, and affirmed that the jury’s $8 million punitive damages award was not precluded by the state’s entry into the master settlement agreement (MSA).
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August 10, 2026
DENVER — The city and county of Denver on Aug. 7 filed a complaint in Colorado state court accusing tobacco companies of public nuisance, trespass and violation of consumer protection laws based on their ongoing manufacture of cigarettes containing nonbiodegradable filters that Denver says has caused it to suffer damages and costs spent cleaning “unsightly cigarette waste.”
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August 10, 2026
HARRISBURG, Pa. — A Pennsylvania federal judge directed the Pennsylvania attorney general and secretary of revenue and a group of e-cigarette retailers and distributors who are engaged in litigation over the state’s new e-cigarette sales regulations to file briefing on the impact of two different U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals’ rulings holding that such laws, in Iowa and North Carolina, respectively, are not preempted by federal law.
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August 10, 2026
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — A Florida appellate panel heard oral argument in a tobacco company’s appeal of a verdict worth more than $34 million to the widow of a smoker who died at 38, in which the tobacco company said the widow failed to meet the standards for reliance required under Florida Supreme Court precedent, while the widow’s attorney argued that evidence that the smoker saw and repeated messages from advertising supports the conclusion that he relied on the ads.
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August 07, 2026
COLUMBUS, Ohio — In oral arguments, the Ohio Supreme Court questioned attorneys from the state and an e-cigarette retailer on whether the state’s consumer protection laws prohibiting sale of vapes not authorized for sale in the United States by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration is a permissible regulation of sales or an improper intrusion into federal regulation.
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August 07, 2026
TRENTON, N.J. — In a federal enforcement lawsuit against a vape company and its owners for selling products barred by the Food and Drug Administration, a New Jersey federal judge granted the United States’ motion to dismiss the defendants’ counterclaims challenging the FDA’s regulation of their products as barred by the United States’ sovereign immunity without prejudice and denied the defendants’ motion for judgment on the pleadings.
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August 05, 2026
CHICAGO — An Illinois federal judge granted a motion by a smoker with lung cancer and her husband to remand their lawsuit against three tobacco companies and local retailer Walgreen Co. to state court, finding that the tobacco companies failed to establish that the retailer was fraudulently joined.
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August 03, 2026
DENVER — A split 10th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel reversed the denial of certification of a class of “Natural American Spirit” (NAS) cigarette smokers in 12 states who in a multidistrict litigation accused three tobacco companies of misleadingly labeling NAS cigarettes “natural” and “additive-free” and affirmed the certification of a class of smokers in eight states who were allegedly deceived by the label on NAS-brand menthol cigarettes, while a dissenting judge said the consumers did not have sufficient proof of their claims.
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July 31, 2026
RICHMOND, Va. — A Fourth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel split in a July 30 ruling as to whether sellers of e-cigarette products have standing to sue North Carolina officials over a new state directory that prohibits sales of products that are not authorized for sale by the Food and Drug Administration, with the majority concluding that vape sellers have standing to sue but affirming that they were unlikely to prevail on their preemption theory.
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July 31, 2026
ST. LOUIS — An Eighth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel on July 30 unanimously vacated a judge’s ruling enjoining Iowa’s law regulating sales of e-cigarettes and barring sales of certain products without Food and Drug Administration marketing authorization, finding that a vaping advocacy association and five vape companies were not likely to prevail on the merits, but split as to whether the law is preempted, which a judge concurring in the judgment said “requires a far more extensive record” to decide.
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July 30, 2026
SAN FRANCISCO — A Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel entered an order dismissing a bottled e-liquids manufacturer’s challenge to a Food and Drug Administration marketing denial order (MDO) banning the manufacturer from marketing its e-liquids in the United States after both parties filed a joint stipulation of voluntary dismissal.