By Tripp Mickle
The biggest U.S. tobacco companies on Tuesday dropped a federal
lawsuit against the Food and Drug Administration after challenging
the agency's recent effort to assert authority over labels on
tobacco products.
Tobacco subsidiaries of Altria Group Inc., Reynolds American
Inc. and Lorillard Inc. said in a court filing they were dropping
the suit because the FDA announced last week that it will review a
policy that would have required companies secure federal approval
for tobacco products if they made such packaging changes as
switching a background color from green to red, altering a logo or
adding such words as "premium tobacco."
The FDA said it won't enforce the policy until it decides to
either revise or preserve it.
In April, the tobacco companies filed a lawsuit against the FDA
challenging the policy in U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C.
The cigarette makers claimed the 2009 Tobacco Control Act, which
gave the FDA authority to regulate tobacco, restricted the FDA from
preapproving tobacco labels of Marlboro, Camel and Newport
cigarettes. As a result, the manufacturers said, they should be
able to change the color or look of tobacco packaging as they
wish.
The companies argued the FDA's policy harmed them by
"restricting [their] ability to modify their product labels without
FDA preauthorization and by chilling and restricting" free
speech.
The lawsuit didn't challenge the surgeon general's warning
labels, which are required by law and warn about the health risks
of smoking.
The companies called on the FDA to go through a
"notice-and-comment rule making" process before issuing new rules.
During the evaluation of the policy, the FDA will be reviewing
comments from tobacco companies and others, a spokesman said.
Write to Tripp Mickle at Tripp.Mickle@wsj.com
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