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December 08, 2025
SACRAMENTO, Calif. — A California federal magistrate judge entered a minute order dismissing without prejudice a smoke shop industry association’s lawsuit challenging a new ordinance in Fresno, Calif., that regulates smoke shops and bars the sale of flavored tobacco, after the parties filed a joint stipulation to dismiss the suit.
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December 05, 2025
MIAMI — A tobacco company in a Dec. 5 brief tells the Florida Supreme Court it should not find jurisdiction over a petition challenging an appellate court’s affirmance of a jury verdict finding the company not liable for a smoker’s death from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), writing that the smoker’s estate failed to preserve its challenge to the trial court’s “random jury box method” and cannot join a pending appeal on that issue.
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December 04, 2025
MIAMI — During oral arguments in a tobacco company’s appeal of a $1 million verdict in favor of a smoker’s estate, a Florida appellate panel quizzed attorneys for both sides as to whether jurors could infer that the smoker relied on tobacco company statements that filtered cigarettes were safer based on a conversation with his brother or whether such evidence is insufficient in light of Florida Supreme Court precedent.
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December 02, 2025
WOBURN, Mass. — A Massachusetts court on Dec. 1 entered judgment worth more than $803,000 in favor of a smoker’s estate after a jury awarded the estate only medical expenses for the smoker’s death from lung cancer after smoking for approximately 55 years and awarded no further compensatory or punitive damages against two tobacco companies or a local retailer.
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December 02, 2025
WASHINGTON, D.C. — A California-based e-cigarette manufacturer filed a complaint asking a District of Columbia federal court to compel the Food and Drug Administration to issue a final decision on its premarket tobacco applications (PMTAs) seeking authorization for its flavored e-liquid products, which it says have been pending for nearly five years even though the FDA is required to decide such applications in 180 days.
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November 25, 2025
A coalition of state attorneys general, joined by lawyers representing New York City, on Nov. 24 issued a letter to a popular Canadian e-commerce company urging it to crack down on hundreds of merchants allegedly using its platform to sell illegal e-cigarette products into the United States that are not approved for sale under federal law.
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November 21, 2025
LAFAYETTE, La. — Repeatedly referencing rulings previously issued in the recent wave of similar cases, a Louisiana federal magistrate judge recommended denying dismissal of a putative class action challenging a health plan’s tobacco surcharge under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act.
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November 20, 2025
RICHMOND, Va. — Virginia Attorney General Jason Miyares and the state’s Tax Commissioner on Nov. 19 filed a motion in Virginia federal court to dismiss a lawsuit brought by two small vape manufacturers alleging that a new state law implementing a registry of approved e-cigarette products “enshrined” a “monopoly” that will “eliminate” small companies like the plaintiffs, writing that the law is a proper exercise of state authority.
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November 20, 2025
SANTA ANA, Calif. — California Attorney General Rob Bonta filed a motion in California federal court to dismiss a lawsuit filed by premium cigar companies seeking to enjoin a new state law that imposes regulations on unflavored tobacco that they say will “push the premium cigar industry off a cliff,” writing that the law does not burden the plaintiffs and excludes “premium cigars” as defined by the state.
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November 19, 2025
SPRINGFIELD, Mass. — Three tobacco companies filed a motion in Massachusetts federal court to dismiss a lawsuit filed against them and two retailers by a 58-year-old smoker diagnosed with lung cancer who seeks damages for his cancer and for consumer law violations.
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November 18, 2025
KONA, Hawaii — A smoker’s estate on Nov. 17 filed a motion in Hawaii state court to vacate a jury’s general damages award in his favor and for a new trial solely on general damages, after the court entered final judgment reducing the jury’s verdict of $350,000 in compensatory damages to $0 based on comparative fault and prior settlements by co-defendants.
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November 12, 2025
SPRINGFIELD, Mass. — Walgreens of Massachusetts LLC on Nov. 11 filed an answer in Massachusetts federal court to a lawsuit originally brought in state court against it and tobacco companies by a 58-year-old smoker diagnosed with lung cancer who seeks damages for his cancer and for the companies’ alleged violations of a consumer law.
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November 11, 2025
RICHMOND, Va. — Tobacco company Altria Group Inc., its vape subsidiary NJOY LLC and affiliates filed a complaint in Virginia federal court and a motion seeking to enjoin an International Trade Commission investigation into certain vape products based on a patent-related complaint by Juul Labs Inc. (JLI), writing that the ITC proceeding is unconstitutional and violates the company’s right to a jury trial under SEC v. Jarkesy.
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November 10, 2025
NEW YORK — A New York federal judge on Nov. 7 entered default judgment, finding two companies that sell “Puff Bar”-brand synthetic nicotine vapes liable for claims brought against them by a consumer for violating New York and New Jersey consumer laws, but declined to enter judgment on the plaintiff’s request for $43,614,000 in damages after denying her motion for class certification.
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November 10, 2025
SAN FRANCISCO — The Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals on Nov. 7 affirmed a district court’s ruling finding three tribal officers of the Alturas Indian Rancheria not immune from claims brought against them by California for the allegedly illegal sales and distribution of cigarettes, including claims against the tribal officers for injunctive relief to comply with state cigarette taxation laws and claims against two officers for civil penalties and money damages.
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November 07, 2025
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — A Fourth District Florida Court of Appeal panel on Nov. 6 issued a per curiam affirmance of a $475,000 punitive damages verdict awarded to a smoker’s estate, which a tobacco company had argued on appeal should be subject to reversal or remittitur because it is 11 times greater than the compensatory damages awarded.
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November 05, 2025
PROVIDENCE, R.I. — Following a string of at least seven rulings in which similar putative class challenges to health plan tobacco surcharges survived wholly or in part, a Rhode Island federal judge on Nov. 4 granted full dismissal of a case that is part of a recent wave of Employee Retirement Income Security Act lawsuits.
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November 04, 2025
SAN FRANCISCO — The San Francisco City Attorney’s Office and three companies that sold flavored nicotine pouches in violation of the city’s ban on flavored tobacco products settled the city attorney’s lawsuit against them seeking civil penalties for violation of California’s unfair competition law (UCL), with a state court entering judgments under which the defendants will collectively pay $2,985,000.
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October 31, 2025
SANTA FE, N.M. — A New Mexico state court jury returned a defense verdict in favor of a tobacco company and local retailer, rejecting all claims brought against them by a dead smoker’s daughter for causing her father’s death from laryngeal cancer through the marketing, manufacture and sale of defectively designed cigarettes.
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October 31, 2025
OAKLAND, Calif. — Public health groups and doctors filed notice in California federal court of voluntary dismissal of their lawsuit seeking to compel the Food and Drug Administration and affiliated agencies to enact a federal ban of menthol cigarettes.
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October 30, 2025
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — Two e-cigarette users on Oct. 29 filed an amended putative class complaint in Florida federal court against two companies that manufacture and market flavored disposable Fume-brand e-cigarettes, alleging that they misleadingly market their products, deliberately target minors and sell their products without authorization by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, in violation of New York, New Jersey and Florida state laws.
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October 28, 2025
SAN FRANCISCO — R.J. Reynolds Vapor Co. (RJRV) and its affiliates moved in California federal court to dismiss a putative class complaint brought against them by e-cigarette consumers for allegedly violating California’s unfair competition law (UCL) and other laws by representing their e-cigarette products to consumers as “carbon-neutral,” writing that such claims were permissible, independently certified and would not deceive reasonable consumers.
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October 28, 2025
RICHMOND, Va. — A putative class action that is part of a recent wave of similar Employee Retirement Income Security Act suits over health plan tobacco surcharges would be resolved under a $4.7 million settlement agreement that the plaintiffs told a Virginia federal court the parties have signed.
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October 27, 2025
RICHMOND, Va. — Two small companies that manufacture vapes filed a complaint in Virginia federal court against the state’s attorney general and tax commissioner, alleging that a new state law implementing a registry of approved e-cigarette products “statutorily enshrined” a “monopoly” that will benefit large manufacturers of e-cigarettes and “eliminate” the plaintiffs and other small vape companies from the market.
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October 27, 2025
ST. PAUL, Minn. — A Minnesota Court of Appeals panel affirmed a trial court’s finding of jurisdiction over a South Korean battery maker in a personal injury lawsuit brought against it by a man who says he was burned when one of its lithium-ion batteries acquired for use with an e-cigarette device exploded in his pocket, rebuffing the battery defendants’ argument that they did not intend their batteries to be used with vapes.