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Tobacco Industry News
Reports
General Tobacco to shut down
Discount cigarette manufacturer General Tobacco of North Carolina will be shutting down in the near future, as the company has been unable to make payments to states required under the Master Settlement Agreement (MSA). Under the MSA, tobacco companies agreed to reimburse states for smokers’ health care costs; General Tobacco has made payments amounting to $600 million over the years. Earlier this year, some states pulled the company’s products from stores because General Tobacco had not made back payments for tobacco sales prior to 2004, when the company joined the MSA. The company reports that it was unable to keep its product prices competitive with rivals while meeting the requirements of the MSA, and thus has been winding down operations over the past few months. General Tobacco may have one more chance at returning to cigarette manufacturing; the company is planning on continuing the appeals process in the dismissal of its case against several state attorney generals and other tobacco companies regarding violations of antitrust and constitutional law. General Tobacco was the sixth-largest U.S. tobacco company over the past ten years, making brands such as Bronco, Silver, and GT One. Read more here.
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International
Leaks reveal over $6m spent on tobacco front group (Australia)
A series of leaked documents shows that large tobacco companies paid third parties to help them launch campaigns in opposition to tobacco control measures in Australia. The documents indicate that Philip Morris, British American Tobacco, and Imperial Tobacco Australia set up the Alliance of Australian Retailers as a front group for aggressive campaigns designed to push policymakers away from requiring cigarettes to be sold in plain packaging with graphic warning labels. While the companies have never denied supporting the group, the documents reveal that they were also involved in creating and funding the group as well. A similar situation had occurred in New Zealand a few months prior to the leak of these documents, in which the retailers group Association of Community Retailers was found to have received support from the tobacco industry to criticize the government’s tobacco tax increases. Click here to read more.
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