The U.S. wants to make sure tobacco companies including Philip Morris USA are named in health warnings they’re being forced to include on cigarette packages.
The cigarette makers were required by a May court ruling to keep telling smokers that their products were intentionally designed to ensure addiction. The companies argued that the court opinion doesn’t mean they have to be identified in those warnings, the government said in a filing in Washington on Monday.
The dispute centres on the phrase, “A federal court has ordered Altria, R.J. Reynolds Tobacco, Lorillard and Philip Morris USA to make this statement,” according to the government.
The U.S. seeks to put a 15-year-old racketeering case to rest and is asking the U.S. Court of Appeals to clarify what should be included in the labels and what the companies can remove. In its ruling, the appeals court said the companies don’t have to say they lied about the health hazards of smoking.
The U.S. argued that nothing in the court’s opinion required the statements “to be presented anonymously or without context.” It’s asking the appeals court to amend the opinion to clarify that the companies’ reading is “mistaken.”
Alicia Grant, a spokeswoman for Richmond, Virginia-based Altria, and Brian Hatchell, a spokesman for Winston-Salem, North Carolina-based R.J. Reynolds, didn’t immediately respond to phone calls after regular business hours seeking comment.
Bloomberg News, edited by ESM
