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Mealey's Tobacco

  • January 14, 2026

    2 PFAS Makers Remove Case, Claim Immunity In Wrongful Death Lawsuit

    EAST ST. LOUIS, Ill. — Two makers of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) on Jan. 13 removed to Illinois federal court a lawsuit brought by a woman who asserts claims for wrongful death and other injuries in connection with her husband’s cancer that she says was caused by his exposure to PFAS and other chemicals during his time working at an oil refinery.  In their notice for removal, the manufacturers argue that they are immune from tort liability.

  • January 12, 2026

    High Court Denies Cigar Maker’s Petition For Review Of Voluntary Dismissal Issue

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court on Jan. 12 denied a cigar maker’s petition for a writ of certiorari challenging the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals’ latest ruling on a long-running dispute between it and rival tobacco companies over antitrust and breach of contract claims, in which the petitioner argued that the Ninth Circuit “deepened” a circuit split by hearing an appeal in which the respondents allegedly “manufactured finality.”

  • January 12, 2026

    Health Groups Urge FDA To Uphold Flavored Vape Bans

    NEW ORLEANS — Several health and anti-vaping groups on Jan. 9 filed an amicus curiae brief in the Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals supporting the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and urging the Circuit Court to uphold its bans of flavored e-cigarettes and e-liquid products, including “zero-nicotine” products, because they say the FDA properly found that the products could lead to an increase in youth vaping and its decision-making authority is supported by high court precedent.

  • January 12, 2026

    Arizona Tobacco And Vape Shops Agree To Pay $460,000 For Underage Sales

    PHOENIX — Three companies and their owner agreed to pay $460,000 in restitution, civil penalties and attorney fees to the Arizona Attorney General’s Office as part of a consent judgment entered in Arizona state court resolving claims brought by the attorney general for illegal sales of tobacco and nicotine products to minors.

  • January 08, 2026

    Juul Reaches ‘Agreement’ With NJOY Over Disputed Docs In Vape Patent Case

    PHOENIX — An Arizona federal judge on Jan. 7 ordered Juul Labs Inc. (JLI), NJOY LLC, Altria Group Inc. and affiliates to file a joint statement under seal “that describes the resolution” of a discovery dispute in a patent lawsuit after JLI said the parties reached “an agreement” relating to allegedly privileged documents JLI “inadvertently” uploaded to a public database, which NJOY described as “evidence of the fraud [JLI] committed to obtain its patents from the Patent Office.”

  • January 05, 2026

    California Issues Unflavored Tobacco List After 9th Circuit And Judge Deny Relief

    SANTA ANA, Calif. — The California Attorney General’s Office published its Unflavored Tobacco List (UTL) after both the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals and a California federal judge denied last-minute bids by premium cigar companies to enjoin publication of the UTL, which they say will harm their companies, with the judge explaining that the companies are unlikely to succeed in their argument that the UTL is preempted by federal authority.

  • January 05, 2026

    Judge Won’t Stay Injunction Of Virginia Vape Registry Law Pending Appeal

    RICHMOND, Va. — A Virginia federal judge on Jan. 2 denied the state’s motion for a stay pending its appeal of the court’s ruling last month enjoining the state from enforcing provisions of its new tobacco products registry law that would bar the sale of vape products not on the registry, but granted the state’s request for a stay of further proceedings in the litigation.

  • December 19, 2025

    Judge Enjoins Penalties Against Vape Companies Under New Virginia Registry

    RICHMOND, Va. — A Virginia federal judge on Dec. 18 enjoined the state of Virginia from enforcing provisions of a new state e-cigarette registry law that would allow it to issue civil penalties or bar the sale of vape products not on its registry pending the outcome of an appeal in the Fourth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals of a similar North Carolina law but granted in part the state’s motion to dismiss two vape manufacturers’ challenge to the registry.

  • December 17, 2025

    Synthetic Nicotine Companies’ Challenge To Mississippi Vape Directory Dismissed

    GULFPORT, Miss. — A Mississippi federal judge dismissed a complaint brought by industry associations, a distributor and retailers claiming that a new Mississippi vape directory law that will ban the sale of e-cigarettes containing synthetic nicotine is unconstitutional, finding that the plaintiffs lack standing because the products they wish to sell are not authorized by the Food and Drug Administration and “there is no legally protected interest to commit a crime.”

  • December 16, 2025

    5th Circuit Grants Rehearing, Says No Jurisdiction Over Battery Maker In Vape Case

    NEW ORLEANS — A Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel on Dec. 15 granted a South Korean battery-maker’s petition for rehearing, withdrew its opinion finding jurisdiction over personal injury claims against the company for injuries caused by a vape explosion, and issued a new opinion finding no jurisdiction after a Seventh Circuit opinion in a similar case led it to go “hunting” for previously unreviewed jurisdictional facts.

  • December 16, 2025

    $276M Award In R.J. Reynolds’ Favor For Brand Sale Affirmed By Delaware High Court

    DOVER, Del. — The Delaware Supreme Court on Dec. 15 affirmed a Chancery Court judgment awarding Reynolds American Inc. and R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. (collectively RJR) approximately $276 million against ITG Brands LLC in a long-running dispute over liabilities to the state of Florida under a tobacco company settlement for the number of cigarettes sold in the state under brands that RJR sold to ITG.

  • December 16, 2025

    Florida Unfair Practices Claim Not ‘Fraud’ In Zyn Marketing Suit, Judge Rules

    MIAMI — Addressing an issue that was recently a matter of first impression before the 11th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals, a Florida federal judge denied a motion by the companies that manufacture and sell Zyn nicotine pouches to dismiss a putative class claim accusing them of deceptively marketing Zyns in violation of the Florida Deceptive and Unfair Trade Practices Act (FDUTPA), saying the claim doesn’t sound in fraud and is not subject to federal particularity requirements.

  • December 10, 2025

    ‘Ultra-Processed Food’ Makers Follow Big Tobacco’s Playbook, California Says

    SAN FRANCISCO — The city attorney of San Francisco, acting on behalf of California, filed a lawsuit in California state court accusing 11 of the nation’s largest food companies and 50 John Does of violating California’s unfair competition law (UCL) and causing a public nuisance by deceptively marketing their “ultra-processed foods” (UPFs) while concealing their health risks in a manner similar to that of the tobacco companies that formerly owned three of the defendants.

  • December 08, 2025

    Smoker With Lung Cancer Says Tobacco Company Suit Belongs In State Court

    SPRINGFIELD, Mass. — A 58-year-old smoker with lung cancer on Dec. 5 filed a motion in Massachusetts federal court to remand his suit against three tobacco companies and two retailers to state court, arguing that the defendants improperly removed the suit based on the claim that he fraudulently joined a local retailer in his suit for compensatory and punitive damages based on consumer law violations.

  • December 08, 2025

    Juul Will Pay $5.8M To Settle Alaska AG’s Claims For Illegal Marketing

    ANCHORAGE, Alaska — An Alaska state court judge entered a consent judgment between the state of Alaska and Juul Labs Inc. (JLI) and its affiliates, resolving a lawsuit brought by the attorney general’s office claiming that JLI misleadingly and unfairly marketed vape products to Alaskan youth, causing a youth vaping epidemic.

  • December 08, 2025

    Delaware Supreme Court Mulls $276M Award In Florida Brand Liability Case

    DOVER, Del. — Oral arguments were held before the Delaware Supreme Court in ITG Brands LLC’s appeal of a Chancery Court ruling ordering it to pay Reynolds American Inc. and R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. (collectively RJR) approximately $276 million for payments RJR has been required to pay Florida for sales of cigarette brands that ITG previously bought from RJR.

  • December 08, 2025

    Smoke Shops’ Challenge To Local Flavored Tobacco Regulations Dismissed

    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.

  • December 05, 2025

    Tobacco Company Urges Florida Supreme Court To Skip Voir Dire Appeal

    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.

  • December 04, 2025

    Panel Questions Evidence Of Smoker’s Reliance On Ads In $1M Verdict Appeal

    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.

  • December 02, 2025

    Massachusetts Court Enters Judgment Exceeding $803,000 For Smoker’s Cancer Death

    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.

  • December 02, 2025

    Vape Company Sues Over FDA’s 5-Year Delay In Review Process

    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.

  • November 25, 2025

    Attorneys General Issue Warning Letter Over Online Vape Sales

    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.

  • November 21, 2025

    Magistrate Recommends Denying Dismissal In Putative Class Tobacco Surcharge Case

    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.

  • November 20, 2025

    Virginia Seeks Dismissal Of Small Vape Companies’ Suit Challenging Registry

    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.

  • November 20, 2025

    California Claims Unflavored Tobacco Registration Law Excludes Premium Cigars

    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.