Supreme Court to weigh whether regulators were heavy handed with flavored e-cigarette products

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court took up an e-cigarette case Tuesday, weighing Food and Drug Administration decisions blocking the marketing of sweet flavored products amid a surge in vaping by young people.

The FDA is appealing a lower court ruling siding with vape companies who argue the FDA unfairly denied more than a million applications to market fruit or candy flavored versions of nicotine-laced liquid that’s heated by the e-cigarette to create an inhalable aerosol.

The case comes as the FDA undertakes a sweeping review after years of regulatory delays intended to bring scientific scrutiny to the multibillion-dollar vaping market, which includes thousands of flavored vapes that are technically illegal but are widely available in convenience stores, gas stations and vape shops. The FDA recently approved its first menthol-flavored electronic cigarettes for adult smokers.

The agency says the sweet flavored e-liquids pose a “serious, well-documented risk” of enticing more young people to pick up a nicotine habit. In 2020, nearly 20% of high school students and almost 5% of middle-school students used e-cigarettes, and almost all of those kids used flavored products, the agency said in court documents.

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