NJOY

Who Makes NJOY?

NJOY is made by NJOY, LLC, which says it was founded in 2006, is based in Richmond, Virginia, and became a wholly owned subsidiary of Altria Group, Inc. on June 1, 2023.² Altria had announced the deal on March 6, 2023, agreeing to pay about $2.75 billion in cash for NJOY Holdings, with up to $500 million more depending on regulatory outcomes for certain NJOY products.⁴

NJOY products reach stores through Altria Group Distribution Company. In the first quarter of 2024 NJOY said its distribution had grown past 80,000 stores and that it expected about 100,000 by the end of that year.⁵

The ACE hardware comes from a contract maker. Vaping360 reported on January 30, 2025 that the ACE device and pods are made for NJOY under contract by Smoore, and that all of them were then manufactured in Asia.⁶

NJOY FDA Marketing Orders

NJOY got its first FDA marketing orders on April 26, 2022, for the NJOY ACE device and three tobacco pods: Classic Tobacco 2.4%, Classic Tobacco 5% and Rich Tobacco 5%. The FDA denied several other ACE products the same day and said any of them still on the market had to be removed.⁷

Two DAILY tobacco products came next. Tobacco Reporter reported on June 10, 2022 that the FDA had authorized NJOY DAILY Rich Tobacco 4.5% and DAILY EXTRA Rich Tobacco 6% and turned down other DAILY products.⁸

On June 21, 2024 the FDA authorized four NJOY menthol products: ACE Menthol pods at 2.4% and 5%, DAILY Menthol 4.5% and DAILY EXTRA Menthol 6%. The agency called them its first authorization of non-tobacco flavored e-cigarettes, said the orders covered those four products only, and said it may suspend or withdraw them if youth use rises notably or if complete switching by adult smokers declines.⁹

The menthol orders also triggered a payment by Altria. It said they obliged it to pay $250 million more in cash under the NJOY merger agreement, and that up to another $250 million depends on FDA orders for Blueberry and Watermelon pods.⁵

The NJOY ACE Import Ban

The NJOY ACE import ban is a patent remedy from the US International Trade Commission, not an FDA action, and it grew out of a case brought by Juul. The ITC opened Investigation No. 337-TA-1368 on August 7, 2023 on a complaint from JUUL Labs and VMR Products, and on August 23, 2024 an administrative law judge issued a final initial determination finding a violation of four Juul patents.¹⁰

The Commission's limited exclusion order and cease and desist orders took effect on March 31, 2025. NJOY says they bar it from importing, marketing, selling and distributing ACE devices and pods in the United States.² Altria said NJOY had stopped shipping ACE to wholesalers on March 24, 2025, that retailers could sell through the ACE stock they already held, and that it took an $873 million non-cash goodwill impairment on its e-vapor unit in the first quarter because of the orders.¹¹

Altria's second-quarter results, released on July 30, 2026, assume that NJOY ACE does not return to the market in 2026.¹² ECIGIntelligence reported on February 3, 2026 that Altria had finished designing a modified ACE meant to address all four disputed Juul patents.¹³

NJOY Lawsuits and Patent Cases

NJOY also lost its own patent case against Juul at the ITC: the Commission affirmed a finding that Juul did not infringe the two patents Altria asserted, and it ended the case on March 3, 2025.¹⁴

Juul filed new complaints against NJOY and Altria at the ITC and in federal court on August 8, 2025.¹⁵ The ITC opened an investigation over US Patent No. 12,156,533 in a notice dated September 9, 2025, and Juul asked it for another limited exclusion order.¹⁶

NJOY, NJOY Holdings and Altria then went after the ITC itself, arguing in federal court in Virginia that its process is unconstitutional. The court granted summary judgment to the ITC on September 3, 2026, according to Law360's case record.¹⁷

The company has also taken on the FDA. NJOY sued the agency in September 2025 over delays on flavored product applications, ECIGIntelligence reported.¹⁸ Altria sued the FDA in Lubbock, Texas on September 2, 2026 over its review system for tobacco products.¹⁹ On October 6, 2026 NJOY and Helix moved to intervene in Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids v. FDA in Maryland federal court to defend the FDA's May 2026 enforcement guidance.²⁰

NJOY ACE 2.0 and Flavored Pods

NJOY ACE 2.0 is a version of the ACE device that uses Bluetooth to authenticate the user before it can be used, and NJOY filed a supplemental application for it with the FDA in May 2024, according to Altria's ACE 2.0 announcement. NJOY resubmitted Blueberry and Watermelon pods at the same time, built to work only with ACE 2.0.³

ACE 2.0 has no FDA decision on record, and none of its products appears on the FDA's authorized list as of May 2026.¹