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Courts stamp out industry claims about 'light' cigarettes.

Article Excerpt
Tobacco companies have marketed "light" cigarettes as a healthier, safer alternative to regular cigarettes for years. Yet people who smoke them say the "lights" deliver as much tar and nicotine to smokers as regular cigarettes--and therefore are just as addictive and hazardous to health.

In a series of lawsuits, smokers and the federal government have alleged that the tobacco industry misled consumers about the risks of light cigarettes and should be held liable for the deception.

"They're selling a fraud," said Gerson Smoger, an Oakland, California, lawyer who represents plaintiffs suing tobacco companies. "We have been trying for eight years to get one simple thing: Stop calling these things 'lights' and deceiving the American consumer."

In one case that the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) brought against cigarette manufacturers, Judge Gladys Kessler ordered the defendants to stop marketing and selling cigarettes as "light" and "low-tar" and to issue corrective statements. (United States v. Philip Morris USA, Inc., 2006 WL 2380622 (D.D.C. Aug. 17, 2006).) The defendants moved to stay the final judgment and remedial order pending appeal, and the appeals court granted their motion. (No. 06-5267 (D.C. App. Oct. 31, 2006).)

In another federal court, Judge Jack Weinstein recently certified a class including all purchasers of light cigarettes, holding that class members were "induced by fraud" to buy the cigarettes and that they "suffered financial damage because they did not...

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