RICHMOND — The nation’s tobacco companies and the federal government have reached an agreement on publishing corrective statements that say the companies lied about the dangers of smoking and requires them to disclose smoking’s health effects, including the death on average of 1,200 people a day.
The agreement, filed Friday in U.S. District Court in Washington, follows a 2012 ruling ordering the industry to pay for corrective statements in various advertisements. The judge in the case ordered the parties to meet to discuss how to implement the statements, including whether they would be put in inserts with cigarette packs and on Web sites, TV and newspaper ads. The court must approve the agreement, and the parties are discussing whether retailers will be required to post large displays with the industry’s admissions. The corrective statements are part of a case that the government brought in 1999 under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act. U.S. District Judge Gladys Kessler ruled in that case in 2006 that the nation’s largest cigarette makers concealed the dangers of smoking for decades. The companies involved in the case include Richmond-based Altria Group, owner of the biggest U.S. tobacco company, Philip Morris USA; No. 2 cigarette maker, R.J. Reynolds Tobacco, owned by Winston-Salem, N.C.-based Reynolds American; and No. 3 cigarette maker Lorillard, based in Greensboro, N.C. Under the agreement with the Justice Department,... |
