Court Unveils Schedule for FDA Premium Cigar Lawsuit Appeal

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia has unveiled the schedule for the next step of the Cigar Association of America et al. v. United States Food and Drug Administration et al., the seven-year lawsuit filed by three cigar trade groups against the U.S. Food & Drug Administration’s (FDA) deeming regulations.

In August, Judge Amit P. Mehta ruled in favor of the cigar groups, but the Department of Justice, which represents the FDA in legal matters, filed an appeal.

The appeals court has ordered the following schedule for briefs:

• Appellants’ Brief — Jan. 16, 2024
• Appendix — Jan. 16, 2024
• Appellee’s Brief — Feb. 15, 2024
• Appellants’ Reply Brief — March 7, 2024

Notably, these deadlines all pertain to paperwork and not a date when the parties will argue the case in front of a three-judge panel.

Mehta’s August 2023 ruling determined the form of remedy; the judge had already decided in July 2022 that the FDA erred when considering how to regulate premium cigars. Specifically, he found the agency ignored comments that showed that premium cigars—larger, unflavored cigars—were not used in the same way as their smaller and oftentimes flavored counterparts.

After more than seven years, Mehta opted to vacate the rule for cigars that met a definition of “premium cigars,” meaning those cigars were no longer subject to FDA’s deeming regulations, such as testing requirements, user fees and a ban on giving away those cigars for retail promotions or charitable donations.

The Department of Justice has not filed for any sort of injunction, meaning cigars that meet the definition of “premium cigar” are not subject to those regulations.

Charlie Minato

I am an editor and co-founder of halfwheel.com/Rueda Media, LLC. I previously co-founded and published TheCigarFeed, one of the two predecessors of halfwheel. I have written about the cigar industry for more than a decade, covering everything from product launches to regulation to M&A. In addition, I handle a lot of the behind-the-scenes stuff here at halfwheel. I enjoy playing tennis, watching boxing, falling asleep to the Le Mans 24, wearing sweatshirts year-round and eating gyros. echte liebe.