'Light' cigarette ruling before appeals court
Jump to full article: Chicago Tribune, 2007-11-20
Author: Bloomberg News
Intro: The U.S. government asked a federal appeals court to uphold a ruling that Altria Group Inc.'s Philip Morris USA and other U.S. cigarette-makers violated anti-racketeering laws by marketing low-tar cigarettes as healthier alternatives to full-flavored brands.
U.S. District Judge Gladys Kessler in Washington issued her 1,653-page decision in August 2006. The manufacturers won a delay of the ruling while they appeal.
"The district court's opinion reveals a decades-long coordinated campaign to deceive American consumers about the toxicity and addictiveness of cigarettes," the government said in a filing Monday with the appeals court in Washington. . . .
In briefs filed with the appeals court Aug. 10, the tobacco companies argued that they couldn't be found to constitute a racketeering conspiracy under the law and that Kessler applied a wrong legal standard in finding that they were likely to commit future racketeering violations.
They also argued that her judgment conflicted with the Federal Trade Commission's policies and that the labels weren't meant to defraud consumers.
Jump to full article » |