Los Angeles Flavored-Tobacco Ban Must Go, Reynolds Says

Federal law doesn’t allow Los Angeles to ban menthol and other flavors in tobacco products sold there, three Reynolds American Inc. companies told the Ninth Circuit in a bid to invalidate the ordinance.

Under the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act, state and local governments retain the power to set age, location, and storage requirements for tobacco product sales, the companies said in a brief Monday. “But one thing states and localities cannot do is prohibit the sale of tobacco products because those jurisdictions disagree with federal tobacco product standards,” they told the U.S. Court of Appeals for the ...