Tobacco.org

• Lawsuit over light cigarettes is allowed 

The state's highest court yesterday allowed potentially hundreds of thousands of smokers to mount a class-action lawsuit against Philip Morris Cos. Inc. contending that the cigarette maker duped them into believing that Marlboro Lights delivered lower tar and nicotine than regular cigarettes.

The class-action suit would represent anyone in the state who since 1994 bought Marlboro Lights, which Philip Morris says is the nation's most popular cigarette.

The 4-to-3 ruling by the Supreme Judicial Court overturned a lower court's decision and set the stage for what could become only the second such suit in the nation against manufacturers of so-called light and low tar cigarettes to go to trial, according to specialists in tobacco litigation.

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