Top Court to Hear Triton Vaping Case

The U.S. Supreme Court will next week hear the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s defense of the agency’s rejection of two companies’ premarket tobacco product applications (PMTAs) to sell flavored vape products that it has determined pose health risks for young consumers.

The live audio of the hearing can be found here.

The justices took up the FDA’s appeal filed after a lower court ruled that the agency had failed to follow proper legal procedures under federal law when it denied the applications to bring their nicotine-containing products to market.

The Supreme Court is due to hear the case in its next term, which begins in October, according to Reuters.

Two e-cigarette liquid makers, Triton Distribution and Vapetasia, filed premarket tobacco product applications in 2020 for products with flavors such as sour grape, pink lemonade, and crème brulee and names such as “Jimmy The Juice Man Strawberry Astronaut” and “Suicide Bunny Bunny Season.”

The FDA rejected the companies’ applications, along with more than 1 million other products.

Triton and Vapetasia in 2021 asked the New Orleans-based 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to review the FDA’s denial of their applications.

In January, the 5th Circuit ruled that the FDA had been arbitrary and capricious by denying the applications without considering plans by the companies to prevent underage access and use.