YOGYAKARTA, Indonesia — Nobody is allowed to smoke in the Sampoerna Rescue camp. The cluster of leaky, ash-covered canvas tents that has been set up in a muddy field here, on the slopes of erupting Mount Merapi in Central Java, has been designated a smoke-free zone by volunteers and employees of Sampoerna, one of Indonesia’s largest tobacco companies. The camp is one of the only places here in Java, where almost two-thirds of adult males ar ... Jump to full article >>

Altria Group Inc., the largest U.S. tobacco company, reported third-quarter profit that beat analysts’ estimates, helped by higher prices for Marlboro cigarettes and snuff sales. Net income rose 28 percent to $1.13 billion, or 54 cents a share, from $882 million, or 42 cents, a year earlier, the Richmond, Virginia-based maker of Copenhagen snuff said today in a statement. Analysts surveyed by Bloomberg had projected 52 cents, the average of 11 ... Jump to full article >>

Government lawyers and attorneys for a group of tobacco companies met Wednesday to discuss how to implement a sweeping injunction lodged against the industry in 2006 by a federal judge who found the companies conspired for decades to conceal the health risks of smoking. The brief status hearing marked the first time in more than two years that the attorneys for both sides appeared in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. The gove ... Jump to full article >>

Following in the footsteps of several other Western countries like Ireland and Iceland, Norway on January 1 this year banned the display of cigarettes in stores in an attempt to cut impulse buys of tobacco products. In Norway, cigarettes have been banished to closed cases, while cigarette dispensers may no longer display brand labels. The company, which manufactures Marlboro, said in a statement on Tuesday: “Philip Morris Norway (PMN) will ... Jump to full article >>

Philip Morris USA (PM USA) filed lawsuits today against eight retailers for selling counterfeit versions of the company’s Marlboro® brand cigarettes in New York and New Jersey. These lawsuits are part of the company’s on-going efforts to stop the sale of counterfeit cigarettes and the unauthorized use of PM USA’s trademarks. “These lawsuits highlight that counterfeit cigarette traffickers continue to operate in the New York metropolitan ... Jump to full article >>

Concluding a jury was moved by emotion rather than hard evidence, a judge on Wednesday reduced $300 million in damages awarded to a Florida smoker against Philip Morris USA to nearly $39 million. Broward Circuit Judge Jeffrey Streitfeld ruled jurors in November granted 61-year-old Cindy Naugle a “grossly excessive” amount of punitive and non-economic damages. Naugle, a longtime Benson & Hedges smoker, has advanced emphysema, cann ... Jump to full article >>

FOR years, Altria, home to Philip Morris and its popular Marlboro cigarette brand, was a corporate pariah blamed for the deaths of millions of people and sued for hundreds of billions of dollars by attorneys general in every state. After eventually acknowledging, like others in its industry, that cigarette smoking was, indeed, addictive and caused disease, Altria went a step further. It broke from the Big Tobacco pack and began supporting legisl ... Jump to full article >>

Cigarette maker Philip Morris USA’s bag of defenses against thousands of smoker lawsuits in Florida may include the fear of having to pay the company’s legal fees. Yesterday, a former smoker in Florida dropped his lawsuit against the Henrico County-based tobacco company and took a $1,000 settlement instead. The plaintiff, Jerome Cohen, accepted the settlement after only two days of trial in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. His attorney, Philip ... Jump to full article >>

The Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) has just until Dec. 26 to conclude discussions with Switzerland-based Sicpa Product Security SA for the firm’s unsolicited proposal to provide tamper proof security stamps on cigarettes and alcohol products in the Philippines, an agency official said. BIR Deputy Commissioner Lilia Guillermo, in a recent briefing with lawmakers on the Sicpa project, said that under the Build-Operate-Transfer Law or RA 7718, ... Jump to full article >>

Philip Morris Counterfeit Marlboro Lawsuit: Philip Morris USA is accusing 10 New York and New Jersey retailers of selling counterfeit Marlboro cigarettes. Reyes Grocery Store and Sunny’s Supermarket, in Newark, are among the defendants named in litigation brought by the tobacco company. The Henrico County-based cigarette-maker has monitored retail markets for years to keep fake versions of its brands off store shelves. Since May of this y ... Jump to full article >>