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TOBACCO BUSINESS
SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2013
NEWS & TRENDS
SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2013
Cigar Legislation Gains 100th Cosponsor
Proposed law to protect premium cigars now has 102 cosponsors.
H.R. 792, also known as the
Tradi-
tional Cigar Manufacturing and Small
Business Jobs Preservation Act
of
2013, has officially passed 100 co-
sponsors in the U.S. House of Rep-
resentatives with the addition of Jeff
Duncan (R-SC-3), Mike Kelly (R-PA-
3) and Fred Upton (R-MI-6). The bill,
along with its counterpart S. 772 in the
Senate, seeks to protect the premium
cigar industry from potentially harmful
government regulation.
The FDA seeks to regulate the pre-
mium cigar industry by controlling the
way the products are marketed and
sold. Restrictions such as banning
walk-in humidors, removing the word
“cigar” from advertisements and shop
signs and controlling the blends that
manufacturers can produce are just a
few of the areas that they wish to im-
pose upon.
These two bills will define premium
cigars as different from other tobacco
products and therefore omit them
from many of the FDA’s onerous and
overbearing regulations. The Interna-
tional Premium Cigar & Pipe Retailers
Association (IPCPR) encourages to-
bacconists, tobacco enthusiasts and
any other member of the premium
tobacco industry to contact their lo-
cal legislators and urge them to sup-
port their respective bill (S. 772 or H.R.
792).
“With the premium cigar industry
responsible for tens of thousands of
domestic jobs, it is an industry that
is vital to this nation’s small business
backbone. Most premium tobacco-
nists are mom-and-pop shops, and
they deserve protection, not destruc-
tive interference and regulation from
their very own government,” says Bill
Spann, CEO of the IPCPR.
Mixed Decision in Lorillard Case
A Massachusetts court threw out $81 million punitive
damages award.
The family of a late Boston woman who
claimed she got free cigarette samples
will be entitled to $35 million in com-
pensatory damages, ruled Massachu-
setts’ highest court. However, the court
threw out an $81 million punitive dam-
ages award and ordered a new trial on
that portion of the case.
The mixed decision was issued by
the Supreme Judicial Court in a wrong-
ful death suit brought against Greens-
boro, N.C.-based Lorillard Tobacco Co.
by survivors of Marie Evans, who died
at age 54 of lung cancer in 2002.
Lorillard’s legal representation de-
fended the tobacco company, not-
ing that samples were distributed to
adults, not children. But Evans had
made a videotaped deposition before
her death in which she said that she
became a regular smoker at about age
13 after repeatedly getting free New-
port cigarette samples at a local play-
ground.
The Supreme Judicial Court justices
dismissed the punitive award on the
grounds that jurors had not received
proper instructions on a wrongful death
theory based on negligent design and
marketing and also vacated the finding
that Evans’ death was caused by negli-
gence by the company. The jury origi-
nally awarded a total of $152 million
in damages, but a judge reduced the
amount to $116 million before the case
went to the Supreme Judicial Court.
Upcoming
indUstry EvEnts
smoker Friendly
17th Annual tobacco
Festival & conference
August 22-23
The Millennium Harvest House Hotel
Boulder, Colorado
2013 ipcpr
convention & international
trade show
July 13-17
The Venetian Hotel Resort Casino
Las Vegas, Nevada
AWmA summit
& Business Exchange
September 9-12
Westin Kierland
Scottsdale, Arizona
