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November 06, 2024
OAKLAND, Calif. — Philip Morris USA Inc. (PM) and R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. (RJR) filed amicus curiae briefs in California federal court in support of a motion by the Food and Drug Administration and affiliated agencies to dismiss a public health lawsuit demanding that the FDA enact a federal ban of menthol cigarettes, arguing that the plaintiffs lack standing and the FDA cannot be compelled to enact such a ban.
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October 29, 2024
HARTFORD, Conn. — A consumer on Oct. 28 opposed a motion by Philip Morris International Inc. (PM) to dismiss as preempted his putative class action suit accusing it of violating Florida consumer protection statutes by deceptively advertising ZYN nicotine pouches as a “safer and healthier alternative to smoking” and targeting youth with its marketing and also opposed its motion to stay discovery.
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October 24, 2024
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — The Fourth District Florida Court of Appeal on Oct. 23 issued an order on the scope of a new trial in an Engle case in which a dead smoker’s widower originally won $157 million, writing that the new trial should consider only the widower’s entitlement to compensatory damages under the state’s Wrongful Death Act based on new Florida Supreme Court precedent allowing surviving spouses to pursue noneconomic damages even if they married after the relevant injury manifested.
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October 22, 2024
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Food and Drug Administration and its federal codefendants on Oct. 21 filed a brief in the U.S. Supreme Court urging it to deny a petition for a writ of certiorari filed by tobacco companies and retailers who are challenging a Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals’ ruling upholding the Food and Drug Administration’s new graphic warnings requirement on tobacco products, asserting that the warnings are proper under the Tobacco Control Act (TCA).
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October 21, 2024
SALEM, Ore. — An Oregon appellate court held that a state law prohibiting sales of any vape product deemed to be packaged in a manner attractive to minors violates the state constitution’s protection of free speech because it controls the packaging of products sold only to adults and remanded the suit.
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October 21, 2024
BALTIMORE — A Maryland federal judge on Oct. 18 entered a docket entry granting the Food and Drug Administration’s motion to remove a two-year-old requirement that FDA provide the court regular status reports on its progress reviewing premarket tobacco applications (PMTAs) for the nation’s top-selling e-cigarette brands, rejecting arguments by health groups and doctors that the reports are still needed.
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October 18, 2024
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — A Fourth District Florida Court of Appeal panel on Oct. 17 affirmed an $8.8 million judgment in favor of a dead smoker’s estate, rejecting a tobacco company’s argument that due to intervening appeals the judgment was rendered no longer final and therefore must be reduced to lost support and services damages of $295,000.
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October 18, 2024
In the past month, at least seven putative class actions targeting surcharges that tobacco or nicotine users allegedly must pay to maintain health insurance have been filed under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act.
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October 16, 2024
WASHINGTON, D.C. — E-cigarette makers, politicians, industry associations and economics groups filed eight amicus curiae briefs on Oct. 15 urging the U.S. Supreme Court to uphold the en banc Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals’ reversal of Food and Drug Administration bans of certain flavored e-cigarette products as arbitrary and capricious, with several amici arguing that the FDA’s bans conflict with Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo.
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October 15, 2024
RICHMOND, Va. — Tobacco company Altria Group Inc. and the United States filed separate motions seeking entry of judgment in a dispute over whether the U.S. Internal Revenue Service owes Altria a roughly $106 million refund for in income taxes Altria says were “erroneously collected” based on taxation of profits earned by the foreign subsidiaries of a foreign company in which Altria held shares.
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October 08, 2024
SAN FRANCISCO — The plaintiffs in a California federal court multidistrict litigation who settled class personal injury and consumer protection claims against e-cigarette maker Juul Labs Inc. (JLI), tobacco company Altria Group Inc. and its subsidiaries for approximately $300 million filed a motion asking the court to authorize the distribution of $201 million in settlement funds to satisfy more than 842,000 valid claims.
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October 08, 2024
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Two makers of e-cigarette products urge the U.S. Supreme Court in an Oct. 7 response brief to side with the en banc Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals in a circuit split over Food and Drug Administration bans of e-cigarette products and affirm the en banc court’s findings that FDA unfairly changed its requirements for vape product manufacturers and “committed prejudicial error” during the review process.
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October 04, 2024
NEW YORK — An e-cigarette consumer filed a putative nationwide class action against the manufacturer of Puff Bar e-cigarettes in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, arguing that it unfairly markets its flavored, disposable, synthetic nicotine products to young people and deceptively labels the nicotine content of its products.
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October 04, 2024
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court on Oct. 4 granted the Food and Drug Administration’s petition for a writ of certiorari challenging a Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel’s finding of jurisdiction over a challenge to an FDA ban of menthol-flavored e-cigarette products brought by R.J. Reynolds Vapor Co. (RJRV) and affiliated entities, which the FDA described as “blatant forum shopping” not supported by the Tobacco Control Act (TCA).
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October 04, 2024
WILMINGTON, N.C. — A man burned when an e-cigarette device’s battery exploded in his pocket filed an appellee brief urging the North Carolina Court of Appeals to reject arguments for reversal of a jury verdict in his favor worth more than $1.6 million, arguing that the jury heard sufficient evidence to hold a battery distributor liable for his injuries.
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October 04, 2024
WILMINGTON, Del. — Two Juul Labs Inc. (JLI) stockholders in a derivative complaint filed in Delaware Chancery Court accuse JLI’s co-founders, members of its board of directors and their special investment vehicles of breach of fiduciary duty and unjust enrichment for allegedly orchestrating the dilution of the value of JLI shares before giving their investment vehicles 1.2 billion JLI shares at little cost in an alleged “windfall.”
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October 03, 2024
NEW YORK — Sellers of flavored disposable vapes and the city of New York filed a joint status report in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York updating the court on their arguments in the city’s suit against them for public nuisance and violation of state and federal tobacco laws, which the defendants say are insufficiently pleaded, deficient due to lack of standing and inapplicable to sales between distributors.
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October 03, 2024
HARTFORD, Conn. — A consumer bringing a putative class action suit accusing Philip Morris International Inc. (PM) of violating Florida consumer protection statutes by targeting youth and deceptively advertising Zyn nicotine pouches as a “safer and healthier alternative to smoking” on Oct. 2 filed a notice of voluntary dismissal of co-defendant Swedish Match North America LLC after it moved to dismiss for lack of jurisdiction.
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September 30, 2024
SAN FRANCISCO — The last remaining claims in a California federal court multidistrict litigation against e-cigarette maker Juul Labs Inc. (JLI), tobacco company Altria Group Inc. and its subsidiaries have been settled, according to a Sept. 27 filing by the plaintiffs’ fee committee asking the court to approve fees and costs of roughly $1.2 million in connection with the settlement of Indian tribes’ claims against Altria.
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September 27, 2024
COLUMBUS, Ohio — After supplemental briefing in an Employee Retirement Income Security Act case the U.S. Department of Labor filed over a tobacco surcharge wellness program (TSWP), an Ohio federal judge on Sept. 26 denied dismissal without prejudice, saying the defendants’ argument regarding the impact of Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo “warrants full consideration.”
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September 26, 2024
HARTFORD, Conn. — Philip Morris International Inc. (PM) and Swedish Match North America LLC filed motions in Connecticut federal court urging dismissal of a Zyn nicotine pouch consumer’s putative class action suit accusing them violating Florida consumer protection statutes by targeting youth and deceptively advertising the pouch products as a “safer and healthier alternative to smoking.”
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September 23, 2024
SAN FRANCISCO — Following oral argument in which the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) participated as amicus curiae supporting application of the effective vindication doctrine in a putative class case, a Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel ordered supplemental briefing in the Employee Retirement Income Security Act case over a tobacco surcharge.
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September 10, 2024
WASHINGTON, D.C. — A District of Columbia federal judge on Sept. 9 issued a partly redacted version of his previously sealed opinion explaining his decision to deny a flavored cigar manufacturer’s motion for summary judgment on its claims for vacatur of the entire deeming rule issued by the Food and Drug Administration under the Tobacco Control Act (TCA) and for an order requiring the FDA to resolve the manufacturer’s pending substantial-equivalence report (SER).
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September 10, 2024
MIAMI — A tobacco company filed an answer brief to the Fourth District Florida Court of Appeal urging it to affirm summary judgment on a smoker’s widow’s wrongful death claim against it for causing her husband’s lung cancer and death, in which it says the court correctly found all claims against it precluded by the dead husband’s settlement of medical malpractice claims against his cancer doctor.
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September 09, 2024
ST. LOUIS — The Eighth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals on Sept. 6 denied a petition for panel or en banc rehearing filed by two subsidiaries of a Winnebago Tribe-owned company, which argued that the Circuit Court erred in its interest-balancing analysis before affirming Nebraska’s right to enforce Master Settlement Agreement (MSA) regulations over its tobacco sales to nonmembers.