Court Orders Advance Remedies Against Big Tobacco

The D.C. Circuit and the district court have issued new rulings that will require the largest cigarette companies to finally issue “corrective statements” disclosing the truth about their products, including forcing the companies to place television and newspaper ads informing the American public that they “intentionally designed cigarettes to make them more addictive.”   The D.C. Circuit ruling rejected the companies’ arguments that they cannot be required to disclose their manipulation of nicotine, and remanded the issue to the district court to reconsider the preambles that will introduce the corrective statements.  The district court ruling rejected R.J. Reynolds’ (RJR) argument that it should not be required to run a television ad as the successor to Brown and Williamson, which was a defendant in the suit but was acquired by RJR.    
Together these rulings further advance the remedies our clients – the American Cancer Society, American Heart Association, American Lung Association, Americans For Nonsmokers’ Rights, the National African American Tobacco Prevention Network, and Tobacco-Free Kids Action Fund – have sought since they intervened in this long-running consumer fraud suit in 2006.