A federal judge this week removed a determination by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration that sought to regulate premium cigars as it would other tobacco products. The ruling by Judge Amit P. Mehta of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia has fully removed the FDA’s 2016 rule after a previous decision that struck down the requirement that premium cigars be accompanied by health warnings on packaging and advertising.
Mehta also previously stopped the FDA from implementing a pre-market review for premium cigars because he wrote “the agency failed to consider a shortened, less burdensome process for those products.”
“This is a great day for the premium cigar industry,” Scott Pearce, executive director of the Premium Cigar Association, said in a press release. “Judge Mehta has handed down a scathing rebuke of the FDA and its rule. This underscores what we have been saying for years: premium cigars are different and should be treated as such.”
PCA was a plaintiff in the lawsuit against the FDA, along with the Cigar Association of America and Cigar Rights of America.
