Premium Cigars Escape FDA Regulation for NowThe FDA failed to consider whether premium cigars warranted a different regulatory approach than cigarettes.
JACOB GRIER
8.11.2023
Cigar smokers have reason to celebrate as a federal judge has vacated the Food and Drug Administration's (FDA) authority to regulate premium cigars. The ruling concludes years of litigation tracing back to the FDA's decision in 2016 to extend its authority under the Tobacco Control Act of 2009, imposing potentially burdensome regulations on the industry. Wednesday's ruling from Judge Amit P. Mehta in the United States District Court for the District of Columbia strikes down the FDA's 2016 deeming regulation, handing a decisive victory to cigar makers.
The central issue of the case was whether the FDA adequately considered whether there is empirical justification for regulating premium cigars as stringently as other tobacco products, such as cigarettes and oral tobacco. Plaintiffs contended that the FDA ignored information on the differential usage patterns and health effects of premium cigars that had been submitted to the agency and misrepresented data on the prevalence of youth cigar smoking. Mehta agreed, holding in July 2022 that the FDA's deeming rule was arbitrary and capricious.
The ruling only vacates the FDA's authority over premium cigars, leaving regulations on machine-made cigars, little cigars, and flavored cigars intact. Products classified as premium cigars must meet a list of requirements:
"(1) are wrapped in whole tobacco leaf; (2) contain a 100 percent leaf tobacco binder; (3) contain at least 50 percent (of the filler by weight) long filler tobacco; (4) are handmade or hand rolled; (5) have no filter, nontobacco tip, or nontobacco mouthpiece; (6) do not have a characterizing flavor other than tobacco; (7) contain only tobacco, water, and vegetable gum with no other ingredients or additives; and (8) weigh more than 6 pounds per 1,000 units."
In short, this means that most of the cigars one would find at a specialty tobacconist will qualify as premium, while the cheaper cigars sold in convenience stores will not.
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Source:
https://reason.com/2023/08/11/premium-cigars-escape-fda-regulation-for-now/
