California Approves Unflavored Tobacco List Plans

As expected, California is moving forward with its previously announced plans to establish a list of approved tobacco products that are legal to sell in the state.

Yesterday, the Office of Administrative Law approved the draft regulations that were unveiled earlier this month, with no announced changes. All of this can be traced back to 2020, when the state legislature passed a law that outlawed the sales of most flavored tobacco and vaping products. As part of that law, the California Attorney General is tasked with enforcing the law, which includes creating a list of approved tobacco products. Starting next year, if a product is not on the list, it cannot be sold to consumers in California.

In order to legally sell their products to consumers in the state, cigar companies will need to apply to be on the California Unflavored Tobacco List (UTL). To do so, companies will need to:

• Pay a $300 application fee for the first year. A $150 annual renewal fee will be required to remain on the list.
• Submit a box of the product to the California Attorney General’s office.
• Provide the California Attorney General’s office with basic details about the product, such as length, ring gauge, weight, quantity, etc.
• Certify that the product meets California’s law that bans most products from having characterizing flavors other than tobacco.

There are other aspects of the law. For example, if a company were to change aspects of a product that is on the UTL List, the company would need to inform the state. In addition, when applying, the company will need to disclose any decisions made by other governments about whether the product in question is flavored.

As of now, companies have 44 days—45 days from Monday, Aug. 25—to submit their applications to make the initial UTL. If a company waits to submit an application after that time, the state will not guarantee a decision before Dec. 31.

That is important because, come Jan. 1, 2026, products that are not on the UTL will not be legal to sell to consumers in California. The state has not provided guidance to retailers about whether there would be any grace period for products retailers already have in inventory that do not meet the UTL.

Going forward, it also means that companies will need to submit new products to be on California’s UTL. The state says that it will reply to these applications within 90 days, which could create a scenario where a new, unflavored cigar is available for sale in other states while the cigar company waits on approval from California. It also could lead to some companies choosing not to offer certain products, like limited editions, to retailers in California.

However, just because a store is not in California doesn’t mean it won’t be subject to the new rule. As the law is written, if a consumer buys cigars from an out-of-state retailer and has the cigars shipped to a California address, those products will need to be on the UTL.

For more information about the UTL, click here.

After the draft proposal was unveiled in early August, cigar trade groups like the Cigar Rights of America and the Premium Cigar Association submitted formal comments objecting to various parts of the UTL. As expected, the state did not announce any changes from the draft guidance to the final rule.