Smokers face an average rise of 0.30 euro ($0.40) on a packet of cigarettes on Monday, making France the fourth most expensive European country for people wanting to light up. Prices have risen by over 70 percent in ten years, taking the price of a pack from €3.60 to €6.20 for the best-selling Marlboro brand. Only the UK, Sweden and Ireland have more expensive cigarettes. A further 6 percent rise is planned for 2012. While the total number of cigarettes sold has fallen over the last ten years, data showed a recent rise in cigarette sales. The drug watchdog OFDT (Observatoire français des ... Jump to full article >>

BETHEL, Alaska – The common-law wife of a man who died of lung cancer has filed a civil lawsuit against the nation’s largest tobacco company, accusing it of engaging in a deceptive advertising campaign designed to get people to smoke, including those in Alaska villages. In a complaint filed in Bethel Superior Court, Delores Hunter of Marshall accuses Philip Morris USA Inc. and its parent company, Altria Group Inc., of making and marketing cigarettes even though they knew the products were addictive and caused cancer. Hunter is the court-appointed personal representative of Benjamin ... Jump to full article >>

COLUMBUS, Ohio (Legal Newsline) – Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine announced a settlement on Wednesday with a tobacco maker for allegedly failing to establish an escrow account for the sale of its cigarettes as required by law. Grand River Enterprises Six Nations LTD deposited $984,185 into a state escrow account, paid penalties and post-judgment interest of $1,052,000 to the state General Revenue Fund and paid attorney fees and costs of $82,000 to DeWine’s office as part of the settlement. “We are glad to have reached this settlement,” DeWine said. “It’s g ... Jump to full article >>

As PR spokesperson for Altria Client Services in corporate responsibility, it is disingenuous for Paige Magness to give the impression that the tobacco industry is no longer targeting minors, and that it has their health and best interests at heart (Tobacco firms don’t want kids to smoke, Readers’ Letters, Sept. 8). To say so is totally irresponsible. After all, it is minors that the industry has always focused on in order to create lifetime consumers of their products. Only because the industry has been forced to concede its deception in court battles has it had to change its ways in the ... Jump to full article >>