Big Tobacco appeals court-mandated anti-smoking advertisements
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Tobacco companies have appealed a court order requiring them to admit in advertisements that they lied about the health risks of cigarettes.
On Monday, the Associated Press reported that several tobacco companies have filed an appeal with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. In the appeal, the companies, which include the three largest tobacco companies in the United States (Altria Group Inc., RJ Reynolds Tobacco Co. and Lorillard Inc.), claim that the proposed advertisements would force the companies to “shame and humiliate themselves by confessing to past misconduct and by branding themselves as liars.” According to the AP, the companies say they are willing to make corrective statements about tobacco products but think that the advertisements go beyond what is “purely factual.”
The appeal is the latest move by the tobacco companies to avoid having to comply with a 2006 ruling from U.S. District Judge Gladys Kessler of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. Presiding over a Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act lawsuit brought by the U.S. Department of Justice in 1999 against the tobacco companies, Kessler ruled that the companies had to admit they had previously lied about the health effects of tobacco products and pay for corrective statements and advertisements to be published in all sorts of formats, including newspapers, television, online and even in packages of cigarettes. The companies appealed Kessler’s ruling forcing them to make the statements, but the D.C. Circuit upheld Kessler in 2012. The current appeal challenges the content of the statements.
The government has until Dec. 8 to respond to the companies’ appeal. According to the AP, the government has previously said that the warnings have to be strong enough to protect consumers.
