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SMALL ENTITY COMPLIANCE GUIDE

Required Warnings for Cigarette Packages and Advertisements: Small Entity Compliance Guide (Revised) Guidance for Industry July 2021

Final
Docket Number:
FDA-2020-D-0988
Issued by:
Guidance Issuing Office
Center for Tobacco Products

On Dec. 7, 2022, the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas issued an order in the case of R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. et al. v. United States Food and Drug Administration et al., No. 6:20-cv-00176, vacating the “Required Warnings for Cigarette Packages and Advertisements” rule. Currently, FDA is not recommending that entities submit cigarette plans. If a firm has already submitted a plan, no further action is needed at this time. FDA will provide further updates regarding submission of cigarette plans as they are available.

FDA is issuing this guidance to help small businesses understand and comply with FDA’s final rule, “Required Warnings for Cigarette Packages and Advertisements,” which establishes new required cigarette health warnings for cigarette packages and advertisements. The final rule implements a provision of the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act (TCA) that requires FDA to issue regulations requiring color graphics depicting the negative health consequences of smoking to accompany new textual warning statements. The Tobacco Control Act amends the Federal Cigarette Labeling and Advertising Act (FCLAA) to require each cigarette package and advertisement to bear one of the new required warnings. FDA has prepared this Small Entity Compliance Guide in accordance with section 212 of the Small Business Regulatory Enforcement Fairness Act.

FDA’s guidance documents, including this guidance, do not establish legally enforceable responsibilities. Instead, guidances describe FDA’s current thinking on a topic and should be viewed only as recommendations, unless specific regulatory or statutory requirements are cited. The use of the word should in FDA’s guidances means that something is suggested or recommended, but not required.


Submit Comments

You can submit online or written comments on any guidance at any time (see 21 CFR 10.115(g)(5))

If unable to submit comments online, please mail written comments to:

Dockets Management
Food and Drug Administration
5630 Fishers Lane, Rm 1061
Rockville, MD 20852

All written comments should be identified with this document's docket number: FDA-2020-D-0988.

Questions?

Contact Point
Contact CTP
Center for Tobacco Products
Food and Drug Administration
Document Control Center
10903 New Hampshire Avenue
Building 71, Room G335
Silver Spring, MD 20993-0002
AskCTP@fda.hhs.gov
(9 a.m. - 4 p.m. Eastern) 1-877-CTP-1373 (1-877-287-1373)
Twitter: https://twitter.com/FDATobacco
FDA Tobacco Education Resource Library: https://digitalmedia.hhs.gov/tobacco
 
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