WASHINGTON (Reuters) — A federal appeals court struck down a law on Friday that requires tobacco companies to place graphic health warnings on their packages and advertising.

In a 2-to-1 decision, the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia said that the law, which is administered by the Food and Drug Administration, violated corporate free speech rights. The ruling contradicted another appellate court decision in a similar case this year, setting up the possibility that the United States Supreme Court will have to rule on the dispute.

“This case raises novel questions about the scope of the government’s authority to force the manufacturer of a product to go beyond making purely factual and accurate commercial disclosures and undermine its own economic interest — in this case, by making ‘every single pack of cigarettes in the country a mini billboard’ for the government’s antismoking message,” wrote Judge Janice Rogers Brown of the District of Columbia Circuit.

The F.D.A. “has not provided a shred of evidence” showing that the graphic labels would reduce smoking, Judge Brown added.