Final Regulation for New Cigarette Warning Labels Released

As the nation deals with the global COVID-19 pandemic, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has released a final rule that will bring about a big change to the cigarette sector of the tobacco industry–graphic warning labels are coming in 2021.

The Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act granted the FDA the ability to regulate tobacco products. In June 2011, the FDA first introduced regulations that required text warnings and graphic pictures on cigarette packages, cigarette cartons and cigarette advertising. Cigarette manufacturers challenged the regulation on the grounds that the requirements violated their First Amendment rights, an argument other areas of the tobacco industry used when facing the threat of warning labels for products like cigars [read more here]. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that “commercial speech,” a protected right under the First Amendment, and that it applied to product packaging and advertising. The first attempt by the FDA to institute graphic cigarette warnings was overturned in 2012 by the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia in August 2012, forcing the FDA to reevaluate its plan to be in better alignment with constitutional standards.

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