There are now seven pending lawsuits filed against the Food and Drug Administration’s tobacco deeming regulations and two of those lawsuits have been consolidated in the Federal District Court for the District of Columbia because the actions deal with very similar legal claims. The sixth lawsuit against the deeming regulations was filed by three vape shops in Alabama and claims that the regulations will “annihilate” the vaping industry rather than regulate e-liquid products. This lawsuit is different from the other suits filed because the vape shop plaintiffs have requested a jury trial as opposed to allowing a judge to decide the case. The seventh lawsuit was filed by West Virginia state legislator Larry Faircloth who claims that his use of nicotine vapor products allowed him to quit smoking and that the deeming regulations would likely cause him to return to using traditional tobacco products.

In addition to the two new lawsuits, U.S. District Court Judge Amy Berman is consolidating two other pending lawsuits so that the two suits proceed at the same time. Nicopure Labs LLC filed one of the suits being consolidated and the other suit was filed by ten vapor organizations. Judge Berman has ordered the FDA to respond with a formal answer to each lawsuit by August 16, 2016 and has scheduled a hearing on the suits for October 19th.