Premium Cigars Free of FDA Approval Requirement for Now

The FDA can’t enforce looming premarket review requirements for premium cigars until it considers a “streamlined” process for cigar makers to equate their products to older ones, a federal court in the District of Columbia ruled.

But the Food and Drug Administration acted properly on other cigar-related aspects of a rule deeming previously unregulated nicotine products subject to requirements already in place for cigarettes and tobacco, Judge Amit P. Mehta said Wednesday for the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.

Three cigar industry groups sued the agency to challenge the deeming rule. They are the Cigar Association of ...