Judge Amit P. Mehta of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia has ruled in the premium cigar industry's favor by vacating the U.S. Food & Drug Administration's (FDA) deeming regulations for premium cigars. The ruling means that the deeming regulations introduced by the agency in 2016 do not apply to any cigar that meets the court's definition of "premium cigar," meaning that those cigars are unregulated by FDA.
That definition is the same one that has been used in this lawsuit since it was proposed in August 2020, it says a cigar is considered a "premium cigar" if it meets all of the following criteria:
is wrapped in whole tobacco leaf;
contains a 100 percent leaf tobacco binder;
contains at least 50 percent (of the filler by weight) long filler tobacco (i.e., whole tobacco leaves that run the length of the cigar);
is handmade or hand rolled (i.e., no machinery was used apart from simple tools, such as scissors to cut the tobacco prior to rolling);
has no filter, nontobacco tip, or nontobacco mouthpiece;
does not have a characterizing flavor other than tobacco;
contains only tobacco, water, and vegetable gum with no other ingredients or additives;
and weighs more than 6 pounds per 1,000 units.
In short, any non-flavored cigar you find sold in a humidor in the U.S. should qualify. There will be some exceptions, but the vast majority of large, non-flavored cigars will qualify.
More information at:
https://halfwheel.com/premium-cigar-industry-beats-fda-in-court-regulations-vacated/428214/
