A legal challenge to a new law aimed at keeping New York City tobacco prices sky high has gone up in smoke.
Manhattan federal Judge Thomas Greisa on Wednesday sided with the city in a lawsuit filed in January by tobacco companies and trade groups representing cigarette retailers.
Greisa in a 36-page ruling said pricing regulations signed into law last November by then-Mayor Bloomberg – which set the minimum price for cigarette packs at $10.50 and prohibited the use of coupons and other promotional discounts to lower that price — pass legal muster and don’t violate free speech rights protected under the First Amendment.
“Price regulations designed to discourage consumption of a potentially harmful product do not violate the First Amendment so long as they do not preclude the effected retailers’ ability to provide truthful, non-misleading information about the regulated product to consumers,” Greisa wrote.
“In their filings with the court, plaintiffs have emphasized that the ordinance impermissibly restricts commercial speech in that it prevents them from offering to sell cigarettes and tobacco products below the listed price,” the judge added. “The court does not find this argument to be persuasive.”
The coupon ban also applies to other types of tobacco products, and Greisa’s ruling rejects a request by the plaintiffs – which include the National Association for Tobacco Outlets and tobacco giants RJ Reynolds and Philip Morris — for a permanent injunction preventing the city from enforcing the law.
“This is a huge victory for the city’s comprehensive efforts to reduce tobacco usage in the city,” Nicholas Ciappetta, senior counsel for the city’s Law Department said.
Under the judge’s decision, the city’s tobacco-pricing law goes into effect immediately. It was originally supposed to go into effect in March but was put on hold by the lawsuit.
Brian May, a spokesman for the plaintiffs, said “we disagree with the court’s decision” and are considering an appeal.