October 9, 2025

Dear Retailers & CART Followers,

Today, the United States District Judge, the Honorable Mónica Ramírez Almadani denied the emergency temporary restraining order requested in the days-old lawsuit aimed at delaying and ending the new California UTL.

If you missed our UTL update email from yesterday, where we covered the Rocky Patel Premium Cigars, Oliva, Padrón, Arturo Fuente, Ashton, La Flor Dominicana, My Father Cigars, PCA, and CRA vs. Robert Andres Bonta, in his official capacity as Attorney General of the State of California complaint, you can read it below.

The UTL application and product submission deadline expires at midnight tonight, October 9, 2025, for review and publication on the list scheduled for publication on December 31, 2025.

Submissions to the UTL can continue after October 9th; however, they may not make the December 31, 2025, list.

As soon as we have more information on the status of the UTL and related legal matters, we will send it along to you.

In the meantime, we encourage you to take action to protect your business by becoming familiar with the UTL and its expected impacts on California Retailers by reading the CART article "Unflavored Tobacco List Regulations (Assembly Bill 3218) – What You Need to Know"

Respectfully,

Charles Janigian

President

California Association of Retail Tobacconists, Inc. (CART)