Tobacco manufacturers challenge LA County's ban on flavored tobacco products

Client(s) Reynolds American Inc.

Jones Day recently filed a federal lawsuit on behalf of R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company and other affiliated clients challenging a County of Los Angeles ordinance that bans flavored tobacco products. As the complaint alleges, this ban is unconstitutional under the U.S. Constitution's Supremacy Clause. The tobacco companies claim that federal law expressly preempts the County's ban and denies states and local units of government the ability to promulgate tobacco product standards that are different from or in addition to federal standards. The tobacco companies also claim that federal law impliedly preempts the ordinance because the County's ban stands as an obstacle to the purposes of federal law and conflicts with Congress's and FDA's judgment that certain tobacco products should remain available to adult users of tobacco products.

R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co., et al. v. County of Los Angeles, et al., No. 2-20-cv-04880 (C.D. Cal.)