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Every business comes with a basic set of legal risks, like getting sued if a customer, client, or worker is injured on their property. In the cigar industry, where business usually revolves around either the production, distribution, or sale of tobacco products, owners also have to tread a minefield of regulatory hazards.
What Laws Could Jeopardize Businesses in the Cigar Industry?
There are several, but the broadest and most serious come from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). The agency has had some regulations that apply to cigars in place since 2016, and it continues to look at further rules that would control the way cigars are manufactured, sold, and consumed.
For instance, FDA efforts to apply the 2016 rules to premium cigars include requiring warning labels on the packaging and a cumbersome premarket authorization process. Various parties in the cigar industry have filed legal challenges to these regulations and the matter is currently on appeal.
Until this appeal is decided, the premarket authorization and label requirements for premium cigars are on hold. Should the FDA prevail, the manufacture, distribution, and sale of cigars in the United States is likely to become more difficult and expensive.
This wouldn’t be the first time in recent years new regulations have made it harder to make or sell cigars domestically. A 2019 law, for example, raised the federal minimum age for the sale of tobacco products from 18 to 21 years of age.
Regulatory actions like these come not just from the federal government, but state and even local governments, too. The city of Minneapolis has a law going into effect on December 1, 2024, that limits smoking a cigar in a cigar lounge to just 15 minutes, for instance.
Ordinances like the one in Minneapolis, along with the FDA’s efforts to further regulate all aspects of the cigar industry, represent some of the biggest legal risks facing every type of cigar business. Even regulations that affect a single segment of the cigar industry can slow down operations or sales in the others.
Venerable Law is ready to discuss the specific legal risks facing your cigar business and help you minimize them. Give us a call to discuss your unique situation and explore ways of protecting your assets: 813-680-4530.
