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Mealey's Tobacco

June 08, 2023
Judgment Entered Resolving Years-Long Rolling Papers Trademark Dispute

CHICAGO — An Illinois federal judge entered an amended judgment after a jury trial, ending a seven-year litigation between the makers of “Raw” and “OCB” rolling papers, with Raw’s maker awarded more than $1.5 million on its counterclaims for copyright infringement and lost profits while agreeing to pay $665,000 in attorney fees to OCB’s makers for fees incurred on its designation-of-origin claim.
June 06, 2023
Widow, Tobacco Companies Answer Smoker’s Kids’ Claims Before Florida Supreme Court

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — The widow of a smoker filed a jurisdictional brief in Florida Supreme Court opposing an appellate panel’s ruling dismissing the smoker’s children’s claims for damages as part of the wrongful death lawsuit she filed as personal representative of the smoker’s estate, while the two tobacco companies she sued in a brief filed the same day write that the panel decision dismissing the children’s claim for damages was nonfinal and unappealable.
June 06, 2023
FTC Pauses Altria, Juul Appeal After Investment Unwound

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Federal Trade Commission published online its order withdrawing an appeal of an administrative ruling recommending dismissal of its antitrust claims against tobacco company Altria Group Inc. and e-cigarette maker Juul Labs Inc. (JLI) from adjudication to allow consideration of new evidence including that Altria is voluntarily unwinding its investment in JLI and both companies are now seeking settlement.
June 05, 2023
Chinese Vaping Company Concealed Risk Before $1.4B IPO, 2nd Circuit Told

NEW YORK — Three Chinese vaping company investors in a June 2 reply brief tell the Second Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals that the dismissal of their putative securities class action against the company should be reversed, asserting that they adequately alleged that the company made misleading statements about the Chinese government’s planned regulatory scheme for e-cigarettes that led them to overestimate its financial prospects before a $1.4 billion initial public offering (IPO).
June 05, 2023
$5.5M Class Settlement Of Tobacco Surcharge, Wage-And-Hour Claims Gets Final OK

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — A Missouri federal judge has granted final approval to a $5.5 million class settlement of a suit over wage-and-hour claims and allegations that a group health plan violated the Employee Retirement Income Security Act by imposing a tobacco surcharge without meeting safe harbor requirements.
June 01, 2023
Panel Vacates Half Of $20M Judgment Against RJR For Smoker’s Cancer Death

BOSTON — A Massachusetts appellate court vacated a jury’s $11,275,000 punitive damages award against R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. (RJR) from a $21 million judgment against it for causing a smoker’s addiction to cigarettes and death from cancer and remanded the case for a new trial after finding that the trial court should have entered a directed verdict on the estate’s negligent marketing claim.
May 26, 2023
Sellers Of Disposable Vapes Ask 6th Circuit To Review Injunction In Trademark Row

CINCINNATI — A distributor of disposable e-cigarette products and several retailers on May 25 filed a notice of interlocutory appeal to the Sixth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals seeking to challenge a district court’s ruling preliminarily enjoining them from sales of vapes with a mark “remarkably similar” to a trademark-holder’s without requiring the trademark-holder to post a $1.8 million bond for their alleged future lost sales.
May 25, 2023
Tobacco Company Sues California For Banning New ‘Non-Menthol’ Cigarettes

FRESNO, Calif. — R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. (RJRT), a California retail association and the owners of two California retailers filed a lawsuit in California state court against the attorney general and Fresno county district attorney claiming that RJR’s new cigarettes containing a “cooling” ingredient and crushable filter capsule that “mellows” the tobacco flavor have been wrongly identified by the state as flavored products.
May 23, 2023
Texas Supreme Court Affirms Jurisdiction Over Battery Maker In Exploding Vape Case

AUSTIN, Texas — The Texas Supreme Court affirmed a trial court’s finding of personal jurisdiction over a Korean battery-maker and its U.S. subsidiary in a personal injury lawsuit brought against them by a man who was burned after a battery they manufactured exploded in his e-cigarette device, rejecting their defense that they did not intend for their batteries to be sold for standalone use in e-cigarettes.
May 22, 2023
Jury Finds Smoker’s Engle Claims Against Tobacco Company Time-Barred

MIAMI — A Florida state court jury on May 19 returned a defense verdict in an Engle lawsuit brought against a tobacco company by the estate of a dead smoker after finding the claims time-barred because the smoker’s chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) manifested before May 5, 1990. VIDEO FROM THE TRIAL IS AVAILABLE.
May 19, 2023
Juul, Altria Will Pay Minnesota $60.5M To Settle Youth Marketing Claims

MINNEAPOLIS — The Minnesota attorney general released a consent judgment entered into in state court among the attorney general, e-cigarette maker Juul Labs Inc. (JLI) and Altria Group Inc. and its subsidiaries, under which JLI and Altria will pay $60.5 million to settle the state’s claims against them for contributing to a youth vaping epidemic.
May 17, 2023
En Banc 5th Circuit Questions FDA About Whether Vape Companies Were ‘Misled’

NEW ORLEANS — The en banc Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals on May 16 heard oral arguments from two vape companies and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration regarding whether the companies’ flavored e-liquid products for use with open-tank e-cigarettes were properly banned from the market, with one circuit judge asking if the companies were “misled” and if the case represented an example of “regulation that’s out of control.”
May 15, 2023
Supreme Court Won’t Hear Vape Company’s Challenge To FDA Ban

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court on May 15 denied a vape company’s petition for a writ of certiorari seeking review of a Seventh Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel’s ruling upholding the Food and Drug Administration’s marketing denial order (MDO) banning sales of its flavored e-liquids in the United States, which the company said implicated questions of judicial deference and Administrative Procedure Act (APA) violations.
May 11, 2023
Altria Settles Remaining E-Cig MDL Claims For $235 Million

Altria Group Inc. and its subsidiaries and the plaintiffs suing them in California federal and state courts on May 10 announced an agreement under which Altria will pay $235 million to settle thousands of lawsuits for allegedly causing a youth vaping epidemic, including personal injury suits brought by consumers and public nuisance and racketeering claims brought by school districts and other government entities.
May 09, 2023
Massachusetts High Court Affirms More Than $37M Verdict For Smoker

BOSTON — The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court on May 9 affirmed a jury’s verdict against a tobacco company for conspiracy leading to a smoker’s addiction to cigarettes and lung cancer, entered a judgment for more than $37 million, including trebled damages, attorney fees and interest, and affirmed the accrual of pre- and post-judgment interest at the statutory 12% rate.
May 08, 2023
FDA Wants 5th Circuit To Rehear Stay Of Menthol Vape Ban En Banc

NEW ORLEANS — The Food and Drug Administration in a May 5 reply in support of rehearing says the Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals should rehear the FDA’s stayed marketing denial order (MDO) banning sales of a tobacco company’s menthol-flavored e-cigarette products with another e-cigarette MDO case in which en banc review is pending, writing that both cases relate to tobacco company arguments “that FDA effectively banned non-tobacco-flavored e-cigarettes through an undisclosed tobacco product standard.”
May 08, 2023
E-Cig MDL Plaintiffs Oppose 1st Amendment Jury Instruction In Trial Against Altria

SAN FRANCISCO — The San Francisco United School District (SFUSD) on May 8 opposed a jury instruction referencing Altria Group Inc.’s right to petition government in the multidistrict litigation bellwether trial against it pending in California federal court, writing that the instruction would undercut its argument that Altria cemented its participation in an alleged racketeering scheme with Juul Labs Inc. (JLI) by sending the Food and Drug Administration a misleading letter about the youth vaping epidemic.
May 04, 2023
Judge: Intervenor’s Bid To Join Cigar Rivals’ $20M Sanctions Fight Is Untimely

LOS ANGELES — A California federal judge denied as untimely a motion to intervene by a litigation funder that purchased an interest in a $44 million judgment awarded to a cigarillo maker for antitrust and breach of contract claims against another tobacco company, writing that it should have intervened after the judgment was vacated in 2019 due to fraud by the cigarillo company’s CEO.
May 04, 2023
Cuban Tobacco Company Says Cigar Competitor Can’t Fight Trademark’s Cancellation

ALEXANDRIA, Va. — Cuba’s state-owned tobacco company filed its answer and affirmative defenses in Virginia federal court to an American cigar company’s appeal seeking the reversal and vacatur of a Trademark Trial and Appeal Board (TTAB) decision canceling its trademarks, arguing that the American company is barred from challenging the ruling based on a Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals ruling and the American company’s decades of use of a trademark that originated in Cuba.
May 04, 2023
Jury Rejects Smoker With Bladder Cancer’s Claims Against Tobacco Company

SOCORRO, N.M. — A New Mexico state court jury unanimously rejected all claims brought by a smoker and his wife against a tobacco company and a local retailer for causing him to develop now-terminal bladder cancer after smoking for 25 years. VIDEO FROM THE TRIAL IS AVAILABLE.
May 03, 2023
Altria Sues United States For $106M In Taxes Allegedly Overpaid On Foreign Shareholding

RICHMOND, Va. — Tobacco company Altria Group Inc. says in a lawsuit filed in Virginia federal court that the United States owes it roughly $106 million in overpaid income taxes the U.S. Internal Revenue Service “erroneously collected” based on taxation of its shares held in a multinational brewing and beverage company.
April 28, 2023
Cigar Groups Say New FDA Manufacturing Rules Will Harm Premium Cigar Makers

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Two cigar industry organizations filed a notice of supplemental authority in a District of Columbia federal court where they are seeking to “vacate and permanently enjoin” Food and Drug Administration rules regulating premium cigars, writing that “[t]he absence of vacatur is signing up this Court’s docket for” future challenges to the FDA’s newest proposed rule requiring allegedly burdensome new manufacturing standards for tobacco products including premium cigars.
April 28, 2023
Judge: Tribal Companies Need Not Pay Escrow For Tobacco Sales On Reservation

OMAHA, Neb. — A Nebraska federal judge on April 27 granted in part a motion for summary judgment filed by two entities that are subsidiaries of a Winnebago Tribe-owned company, finding that the state may not collect escrow payments from tobacco sales on the Winnebago Reservation but also granting in part the state’s motion for summary judgment and finding escrow payments required for sales on another tribe’s reservation.
April 27, 2023
British American Tobacco To Pay $634M For Concealed Sales Into North Korea

WASHINGTON, D.C. — A District of Columbia federal judge on April 26 entered an amended judgment ordering a British tobacco company’s Singaporean subsidiary to pay $629 million in fines and forfeiture, shortly after the parent company agreed to a $5.3 million settlement agreement with the U.S. Department of Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), all in relation to the companies’ activities selling tobacco leaf into North Korea in violation of U.S. sanctions.
April 21, 2023
Request For $34M In Disgorged Profits Rejected In Rolling Paper Row

CHICAGO — A rolling paper company deemed liable by jurors for copyright and trademark infringement that nonetheless prevailed on its own claim for common-law unfair competition will not be awarded disgorged profits, a federal judge in Illinois ruled.