Jump to full article: Law.com, 2009-05-14
Author: Amaris Elliott-Engel The Legal Intelligencer
Intro: A Philadelphia judge has ruled that R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. violated the Master Settlement Agreement between big tobacco companies and 46 state attorneys general by publishing advertisements in Rolling Stone that contained cartoon imagery. (view ad)
Philadelphia Common Pleas Judge William J. Manfredi sanctioned R.J. Reynolds more than $300,000 for running the cartoon advertisements.
The judge ordered the tobacco company to run a full-page, antismoking and youth-oriented advertisement in Rolling Stone to be created in consultation with the U.S. Center for Disease Control's Division of Tobacco Prevention and Control and the state attorney general.
Once the corrective advertisement is published, the monetary sanction is to be purged, Manfredi ordered in Commonwealth v. Philip Morris Inc . Manfredi also ordered the company to pay counsel fees and prosecution costs to the state Attorney General's Office.
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