Cigarette Manufacturers Win Challenge
- FDA, cigarettes, Cigarette packaging
- By: Bob Gatty
- August 27, 2012
A U.S. Federal Court of Appeals agreed with a challenge by U.S. tobacco manufacturing companies that a provision of federal law requiring graphic images on products warning of the dangers of smoking is a violation of the Constitutional guarantees of free speech.
The Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act of 2009 requires nine written warnings on packages along with alternating graphic images showing such images as smoke-infected lungs and a diseased mouth. The warnings were scheduled to begin appearing next month and would have covered half the cigarette packaging sold at retail outlets and 20% of all cigarette advertising.
The tobacco companies initially won in federal court in March, but the government appealed. The 2-1 split U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia has now upheld that ruling and ordered the Food and Drug Administration to immediately revise its rules. READ MORE.
However, as of August 28, the FDA's website did not contain new guidance for the industry, still posting this statement from February 2012.
