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April 29, 2026
SPRINGFIELD, Mass. — A Massachusetts federal judge on April 28 remanded a lawsuit filed by a 58-year-old smoker with lung cancer against three tobacco companies and two retailers to state court, finding the tobacco defendants failed to establish fraudulent joinder of one of the retailers and that the plaintiff’s misidentification of the retailer in the pleadings was an “excusable misnomer.”
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April 29, 2026
SAN FRANCISCO — A Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel granted a petition by Juul Labs Inc. (JLI), Altria Group Inc. and former JLI board members for review of a lower court’s order certifying several classes of purchasers bringing antitrust claims against JLI and Altria for allegedly seeking to monopolize the e-cigarette market, which they say could expose them to $1 billion in liability.
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April 29, 2026
WILMINGTON, Del. — Reynolds American Inc. and R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. (collectively RJR) moved in Delaware Chancery Court to dismiss an unjust enrichment complaint brought by Philip Morris USA Inc. (PM), which says it is entitled to approximately $100 million of a $276 million award in RJR’s favor for a dispute over liabilities to the state of Florida, writing that PM’s claims are untimely, improper and based on a “counterfactual” market share theory that was previously rejected.
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April 29, 2026
MIAMI — Several tobacco companies and a pro-business nonprofit law firm separately filed amicus curiae briefs urging the 11th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals to uphold a federal judge’s vacatur of the Food and Drug Administration final rule requiring graphic warnings on all tobacco products pursuant to the Tobacco Control Act (TCA), with the tobacco companies arguing that the rule was issued improperly under the TCA and the nonprofit saying it violates the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.
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April 29, 2026
SAN FRANCISCO — A manufacturer of bottled, flavored e-liquids tells the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals that, more than four years after its case was stayed for the Food and Drug Administration to re-review and uphold a marketing denial order (MDO) banning sales of its products, the Circuit Court should address the unresolved issue of whether the FDA improperly adopted a “longitudinal comparative efficacy requirement” for vape products.
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April 28, 2026
BOSTON — A Massachusetts federal judge granted in part a motion to dismiss filed by two tobacco companies and two retail companies facing a lawsuit by a smoker’s widow, dismissing the widow’s claim that the defendants engaged in a “power of coercion” conspiracy by “saturating the information environment” with false claims about smoking, including while distributing cigarettes to servicemembers in Vietnam, but allowed her other claims to proceed.
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April 27, 2026
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The D.C. Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals on April 24 ordered an expedited briefing schedule of a California-based e-liquid manufacturer’s petition for review of a Food and Drug Administration ban of its products, which the court previously declined to stay and which the company claims will hurt its business and cause it irreparable harm.
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April 24, 2026
MIAMI — A Florida appellate court entered an order dismissing an appeal after a notice of voluntary dismissal was filed by a former smoker of Parliament and Marlboro-brand cigarettes with heart disease and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), thereby dropping his appeal of a state court’s defense verdict dismissing his defective design claims prior to any briefing in the case.
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April 23, 2026
CHICAGO — A Seventh Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel affirmed a federal judge’s refusal to enjoin enforcement of a new Wisconsin tobacco product directory that purportedly bans the sale of synthetic nicotine e-cigarette products, writing that the directory is not preempted by federal laws regulating such products.
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April 22, 2026
BOSTON — The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court on April 22 affirmed a $56 million punitive damages award in favor of the estate of a smoker who died from lung cancer at age 60, which the trial court judge reduced on remittitur down from the original amount of $1 billion in punitive damages against a tobacco company. The court said that the trial court properly found that the jurors “were not inflamed by passion or prejudice” and that the verdict after the judge’s reduction “was within constitutionally permissible bounds.”
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November 07, 2025
BOSTON — Attorneys for Philip Morris USA Inc. (PM) urged the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court to order a new trial for a smoker’s estate based on a jury’s “excessive” $1 billion punitive damages award and to consider if such trials should be bifurcated, while justices asked if the trial court’s reduction of the punitive damages to $56 million by remittitur was already a sufficient remedy (Armand Fontaine v. Philip Morris USA, Inc., No. SJC-13778, Mass. Sup. Jud.).
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April 17, 2026
WASHINGTON, D.C. — On remand from the District of Columbia Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals, a D.C. federal judge again vacated the Food and Drug Administration’s rule for premium cigars, adopting the same definition of such products that the court previously adopted and rejecting one cigar advocacy group’s arguments for amending the definition to include flavored cigars as unsupported by the evidence.
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April 17, 2026
FRESNO, Calif. — A California federal magistrate judge recommended granting the California Attorney General’s Office’s motion for summary judgment against a flavored-vape retailer and its CEO for violating federal and state tobacco laws and California’s unfair competition law (UCL) by selling disposable flavored vape products without a license or youth restrictions but denying a request for more than $1 million in civil penalties due to a factual dispute about the amount owed.
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April 15, 2026
CHICAGO — An Illinois federal judge granted a motion by Juul Labs Inc. (JLI) and one of its wholesalers to reconsider an order granting a company’s motion to file a fourth amended complaint accusing JLI of antitrust law violations, vacated the order and affirmed a previous order dismissing the complaint with prejudice due to “misinformation” from the plaintiff regarding the status of discovery proceedings.
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April 13, 2026
As the number of health plan sponsors facing putative class lawsuits over tobacco surcharges keeps rising, plaintiffs continue to get claims past dismissal most of the time, but in the last month one case has been dismissed while four survived dismissal wholly or in part; additionally, a similar case that slightly preceded the wave was ruled time-barred at summary judgment.
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April 10, 2026
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Trademark Trial and Appeal Board (TTAB) had substantial evidence to support its rejection of a Dominican Republic tobacco company’s challenge to a CBD vape manufacturer’s application for a trademark on a stick-figure logo with limbs splayed out in the shape of the letter X, a Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel affirmed.
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April 09, 2026
NEW YORK — A New York federal judge largely denied motions by flavored e-cigarette distributors to dismiss a lawsuit brought against them by the state Attorney General’s Office for violating state and federal laws and creating a public nuisance by selling China-manufactured flavored e-cigarettes in the state and causing a youth public health crisis but granted dismissal of two claims as inadequately pleaded.
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April 09, 2026
SAN FRANCISCO — E-cigarette consumers whose putative class lawsuit in California federal court against e-cigarette companies for “greenwashing” their products by calling them “carbon-neutral” in violation of California’s unfair competition law (UCL) and other laws was dismissed after the judge found that the defendants’ environmental claims were legally proper are appealing that ruling to the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals.
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March 30, 2026
BOSTON — The widow of a smoker who died of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and esophageal cancer filed a first amended complaint in Massachusetts federal court against two tobacco companies and two retail companies after previously stipulating to dismissal of another tobacco company, seeking compensatory and punitive damages for wrongful death and unfair and deceptive trade practices.
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March 26, 2026
WASHINGTON, D.C. — A District of Columbia federal judge ordered the Food and Drug Administration and other government defendants to respond within days to a motion for a temporary restraining order and complaint filed by the maker of “Zone” nicotine pouches that says the FDA’s decision to refuse to file its premarket tobacco application (PMTA) for its pouch products, which effectively denied it authorization to sell its products, “poses an existential threat to the company.”
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March 20, 2026
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) reversed a finding from an administrative law judge (ALJ) that certain tobacco product entities violated federal importation laws by importing vaping products that infringed a patent held by R.J. Reynolds Vapor Co. and related entities; the ITC determined that there was no violation because multiple claims of the patent at issue are invalid as obvious.
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March 18, 2026
CHICAGO — An Illinois federal judge set an initial status conference in a case brought by a smoker with lung cancer and her husband against three tobacco companies and a local retailer for allegedly causing her addiction to cigarettes, which the tobacco companies recently removed to federal court on the grounds that the retailer was fraudulently joined.
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March 13, 2026
BOSTON — A Massachusetts Appeals Court panel on March 13 vacated due to improper jury instructions a state court jury’s defense verdict rejecting all claims against a tobacco company brought by the widower of a smoker who started smoking around age 10 and died at age 65 from lung cancer and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD).
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March 11, 2026
SILVER SPRING, Md. — The Food and Drug Administration issued new draft guidance, for which it is currently accepting comment, stating that the FDA is “open to evidence” that flavored e-cigarettes might help adult smokers quit and suggesting that it may grant premarket tobacco authorizations (PMTA) to such products for which sufficient evidence is submitted.
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March 11, 2026
As federal judges resolve dismissal motions in a wave of putative class Employee Retirement Income Security Act challenges to health plan tobacco surcharges, denials still predominate, but defendants won dismissal in two of the latest four rulings.