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MINNEAPOLIS (Legal Newsline) – Tobacco companies have lost their challenge of a Minnesota city’s ban on flavored tobacco products that was passed when health problems associated with vaping became known.
American Snuff Company, Santa Fe Natural Tobacco and Lang’s One Stop Market complained that Edina’s ordinance went too far, in that it effectively banned menthol-flavored tobacco products in order to curb the appeal to teenagers.
On Aug. 31, Minnesota federal judge Patrick Schiltz sided with Edina, finding its ordinance is not preempted by federal law regulating tobacco-product standards.
It would have been preempted unless it was “saved” by the saving clause in tobacco regulations, Schiltz wrote. The ordinance was saved as it is a “requirement relating to the sale… of… tobacco products by individuals of any age.”
“The fact remains that there is no reasonable way to construe language that authorizes regulations governing activities ‘by individuals of any age’ to authorize only regulations governing individuals of particular ages,” Schiltz wrote.
“Moreover, the inclusion of ‘by individuals of any age’ makes sense in the broader context of the Act, which was partly a response to the FDA’s earlier unsuccessful attempt to assert jurisdiction over tobacco products in order to enact age-specific tobacco regulations.”
The plaintiffs had called the ban “unjustified” and said it extended to popular adult products like menthol cigarettes and flavored smokeless tobacco.