
The Food and Drug Administration’s decision to regulate premium cigars with the same authority as regular cigars, e-cigarettes and hookahs has been overturned, according to an opinion filed Friday by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.
“The FDA’s rationale was factually incorrect,” court documents said. “We have held that agency action is arbitrary and capricious if it rests upon a factual premise that is unsupported by substantial evidence.”
In 2016, CAA, the Premium Cigar Association and the Cigar Rights of America filed a lawsuit against the FDA challenging the inclusion of premium cigars in the agency’s deeming regulations.
“This is a great victory for the cigar industry,” said Cigar Association of America (CAA) Chairman Javier Estades. “CAA is very proud to have led as the named plaintiff in this case and to have worked alongside our partners at the Premium Cigar Association and the Cigar Rights of America for this outcome.”
The case affects convenience retailers in a few ways, CAA President Scott Pearce told CSP.
“With the vacatur being upheld, it means those who sell premium cigars will not have to worry about any products being arbitrarily pulled off the shelves.”
Pearce said convenience-store retailers don’t need to second-guess the products they are selling but instead can continue to seek out new and exciting products that their customers want.
“This ruling, coupled with the FDA withdrawing the flavor rule on cigars, means that retailers can have confidence that the current cigar products they are selling right now are not in any immediate danger of being regulated arbitrarily and that their customers can be assured they will have access to their favorite products,” he said.
The action will not return to the district court until the mandate issues, which will likely be in March, CAA said in a statement.
The FDA on Jan. 21 withdrew its proposed rules to ban menthol cigarettes and flavored cigars. The rules, first proposed by the FDA in 2022, had been delayed several times, most recently in April under the Biden administration.
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