Company: XXII
Filing Date: 2025-06-06
Form Type: PRER14A
Source: 0001641172-25-013953
Chunk: 92

Company: 22nd Century Group, Inc.
Filing Date: 2025-06-06
Form: PRER14A
Chunk 92
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 date of the Award.

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13. Minimum Vesting Period; Discretion to Acceleration Vesting; Restrictions on Transfer, Encumbrance and Disposition.

(a) Minimum Vesting Period. All Awards granted under the Plan that may be settled in Shares must have a minimum vesting period of one (1) year from the date of grant, provided that such minimum vesting period will not apply to Awards with respect to up to five percent (5%) of the total number of Shares reserved pursuant to Section 5. For purposes of Awards granted to Non-Employee Directors, “one year” may mean the period of time from one annual stockholders meeting to the next annual stockholders meeting, provided that such period of time is not less than fifty (50) weeks.

(b) Discretion to Accelerate. Notwithstanding Section 13(a), the Administrator may accelerate the vesting of an Award or deem an Award to be earned, in whole or in part, in the event of (i) a Participant’s death, disability, retirement, or termination without Cause, (ii) as provided in Section 16(c) or (iii) upon any other event as determined by the Administrator in its sole and absolute discretion.

(c) Restrictions on Transfer, Encumbrance and Disposition. No Award granted under this Plan may be sold, assigned, mortgaged, pledged, exchanged, hypothecated or otherwise transferred, or encumbered or disposed of, by a Participant other than by will or the laws of descent and distribution, and during the lifetime of the Participant such Awards may be exercised only by the Participant or the Participant’s legal representative or by the permitted transferee of such Participant as hereinafter provided (or by the legal representative of such permitted transferee). Notwithstanding the foregoing, a Participant may transfer an Award if permitted by the Administrator. Subsequent transfers of transferred Awards are prohibited except transfers otherwise made in accordance with this Section 13(c). Any attempted transfer not permitted by this Section 13(c) shall be null and void and have no legal effect. The restrictions set forth in this Section 13(c), and any risk of forfeiture applicable to an Award, shall be enforceable against any transferee of an Award.

14. Termination and Amendment of Plan; Amendment, Modification or Cancellation of Awards.

(a) Term of Plan. Unless the Board earlier terminates this Plan pursuant to Section 14(b), this Plan will terminate on the tenth (10 th) anniversary of the most recent shareholder