Juul may continue to sell his e-cigarettes, at least for now, after a federal appeals court on Friday temporarily blocked a government ban.
Juul filed an emergency motion Friday before, requesting temporary detention while appealing the sales ban.
The e-cigarette maker had asked the court to stop what he called an “extraordinary and illegal action” by the Food and Drug Administration that would have forced him to stop his business immediately.
The FDA said Thursday that Juul should stop selling its spray device and its tobacco and menthol-flavored cartridges.
The action was part of a broad-based effort by the agency to bring scientific scrutiny to the multimillion-dollar vaping industry after years of regulatory delays.
To stay in the market, companies must demonstrate that their e-cigarettes benefit public health. In practice, this means showing that adult smokers who use them are likely to quit smoking or reduce their consumption, while adolescents are unlikely to stick to them.
The FDA said the Juul application left regulators with important questions and did not include enough information to assess any potential health risks. Juul said he sent enough information and data to address all the issues raised.
A panel of three U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals judges granted Juul’s request for a detention while the court reviews the case.
While Juul remains one of the best-selling, its share of the U.S. e-cigarette market has halved. The company was widely blamed for an increase in child vaping a few years ago, but a recent federal survey showed a drop in teenage vaping rate and a shift in Juul products.
The devices heat a solution of nicotine in an inhaled vapor, avoiding many of the toxic chemicals produced by tobacco burning.
The company said in its Friday filing that it filed a 125,000-page application with the FDA nearly two years ago. He said the app included several studies to assess health risks among Juul users.
Juul said the FDA cannot argue that there was a “critical and urgent public interest” in immediately withdrawing its products from the market when the agency allowed them to be sold during its review.
The company noted that the FDA denied its request while authorizing those filed by competitors with similar products.
The FDA has approved e-cigarettes from RJ Reynolds, Logic and other companies, while rejecting many others.
In 2019, Juul was pressured to stop all advertising and eliminate its fruit and dessert flavors after they became popular among high school and high school students. The following year, the FDA limited the flavors of small vaporizers to tobacco and menthol only.