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.
