New York: A US federal appeals court has granted a temporary reprieve to Juul Labs that will allow it to keep its e-cigarettes on the market, pending further court review of a decision just a day earlier by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to ban sales of the company's products.
The US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia issued a temporary stay that had been sought by Juul.
The brief order by the appeals court cautioned that the stay "should not be construed in any way as a ruling on the merits," reports The New York Times.
The stay involved the FDA's order on Thursday, when the agency said Juul had to stop selling its products because it had provided conflicting and insufficient data that prevented the FDA from assessing the potential health risks of its products. As per the report, it will be up to the appeals court to decide whether Juul should continue to be allowed to sell its products while the company pursues its appeal of the FDA's decision.
The court gave Juul until Monday noon to file an additional motion, and it gave the FDA until July 7 to file a motion in response. In its emergency filing for a stay, Juul argued that the FDA's decision to ban sales was motivated by political forces that sought to blame the company for the youth vaping crisis.
The FDA issued the ruling against Juul "after immense political pressure from Congress", the filing reads, "even though several of its competitors now have a larger market share and much higher underage-use rates".
However, the FDA did not cite underage use in its decision to ban Juul from the market.
Rather, the agency said Juul had not provided sufficient evidence that its product prevents the leaching of chemicals from the device to the nicotine vapor that users inhale. —IANS