U.S. Discount Importers Want To Stop Tobacco Deal
08/20/99
A group of 55 discount cigarette importers have sued to overturn the national tobacco settlement, claiming that it unfairly burdens them.
The distributors named 147 defendants in the lawsuit, filed late last week in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles and made public Thursday, including the attorneys general of 47 states, governors and other state officials and 22 tobacco companies.
The lawsuit, which claims anti-trust and Constitutional violations, seeks to invalidate the settlement, strike down two laws which implement it and mandate that any proceeds go into a national trust to pay the health-care costs of people suffering from smoking-related illness.
Cigarettes
