R J Reynolds

R.J. Reynolds agreed to stop mailing cigarette samples to nonsmokers. Reynolds has maintained it did nothing wrong because the samples were sent only to people who signed up for assorted promotions and had certified that they were over 21, but in a letter to Arizona Atty. Gen. Janet Napolitano the company acknowledged that its mailing system for dealing with adult smokers is "flawed" because it allows unsolicited mail to be sent.

Two of the three largest U.S. tobacco companies sued Monday to block marketing restrictions in a law that gives the Food and Drug Administration authority over tobacco, alleging the provisions violate their right to free speech. R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co., maker of Camel cigarettes, and Lorillard Inc., which sells the Newport menthol brand, filed the suit in District Court in Bowling Green, Ky., with several other tobacco companies. It is the first major challenge of the legislation, which was enacted in June.

A Mississippi jury ruled Wednesday that R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. is not liable in a wrongful-death suit brought by the widow of a man who had smoked since he was a boy. The ruling, the second recent case brought on behalf of an individual smoker to go the industry's way, comes as tobacco firms await a Florida jury's decision on how much to award plaintiffs in a landmark class-action case brought by sick smokers. The award in Miami's Engle case could reach the hundreds of billions of dollars.

R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. will pay $5 million to resolve a suit brought by California over the free distribution of cigarettes at a hot rod race, a jazz festival and other public events, the state attorney general's office announced Monday. Under the settlement, the tobacco maker will pay a civil penalty of $3.

R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Holdings Inc. said Wednesday that it would slash its workforce by 40%, or about 2,600 jobs, to cut costs and would focus its marketing on two main brands while combating competition from low-cost cigarettes. The company said its top priority would be to support its top-selling Camel cigarettes, with the Salem menthol brand as its second priority. News of the restructuring drove shares of the No. 2 U.S. cigarette maker up nearly 14%. R.J.

A wrongful death lawsuit against the R. J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. by the survivors of a man who had smoked for five decades has been settled, an attorney said. The survivors of John Mark Galbraith agreed to drop an appeal of a jury decision in favor of R.J. Reynolds after the tobacco company decided to waive $39,000 it had been awarded in court costs, said Galbraith family attorney Paul Monzione of San Francisco.

R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Holdings Inc., responding to discounts by No. 1 cigarette maker Philip Morris Cos., lowered its profit forecasts to increase spending on promotions. Third-quarter net income will decline as much as 38%, R.J. Reynolds said. In July, the company said earnings would fall as much as 4% from the year-earlier period. Annual profit would drop as much as 19%. It had been expected to increase 5% to 7%. R.J.

R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Holdings Inc. said smuggling allegations leveled against it by the Canadian government relate solely to its former international affiliates. Canada on Tuesday filed suit against Winston-Salem, N.C.-based R.J. Reynolds seeking at least $1 billion, claiming the company smuggled cigarettes into the country to undercut a government plan to discourage smoking with high taxes. R.J. Reynolds said the companies at the core of Canada's case--R.J.

R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Holdings Inc. won the battle to acquire Santa Fe Natural Tobacco Co., a small player with an affluent following, announcing a definitive agreement to buy the firm for $340 million in cash. Privately held Santa Fe, with $94 million in annual sales, had sparked a bidding war between No.2 U.S. tobacco company R.J. Reynolds and Canadian tobacco company Rothmans Inc., partly because of the appeal of its Natural American Spirit cigarettes.

R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Holdings Inc. was told to pay about $200,000 in compensatory damages to the family of a deceased Florida smoker. The state court jury declined to award punitive damages. The six jurors, who began deliberations Wednesday, decided the company was negligent in making a dangerous product that caused the death of Suzanne Jones. The 62-year-old mother of one, who smoked for 42 years, suffered from lung and colon cancer.

Shaken, stirred -- and thrown down the drain. A cigarette promotion that urged college-age consumers to mix exotic drinks and "go 'til daybreak" ended abruptly Wednesday after R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. bowed to complaints that it could encourage irresponsible drinking. Since January, the nation's second-largest tobacco company has been mailing a Camel cigarette brand promotion to people as young as 21 containing six drink coasters.

The first present Kellen Cox received on her 24th birthday was a set of six drink coasters that came in the mail -- each bearing the recipe of an exotic cocktail. One concoction, the Crazy Bootlegger, called for a shot each of Jack Daniel's, Southern Comfort and Sambuca. "Mix three shots together over ice, then make sure you're sitting," the coaster urged. The gift giver was no friend, or even a liquor company. It was tobacco giant R.J.

The state of Vermont on Tuesday sued R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co., accusing the nation's second-largest cigarette maker of misleading the public with unsubstantiated claims that its Eclipse brand of cigarettes might carry less risk of cancer and other health ailments. Backed by a coalition of states, including California, the suit targets a product that aims to deliver smokers the taste of tobacco without actually burning it. Vermont Atty. Gen. William H.

The U.S. Supreme Court breathed new life Monday into a European Union lawsuit that accuses R.J. Reynolds Co. of smuggling cigarettes to avoid paying potentially billions of dollars in taxes, fees and customs duties. The justices, citing their decision last week in a case raising similar issues, on Monday told a federal appeals court to revisit its conclusion that U.S. judges lack jurisdiction to consider the EU claims.

R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. agreed Wednesday to pay a $11.4-million penalty and curb its ads in magazines with large teen audiences to settle a state lawsuit over its advertising practices, state Atty. Gen. Bill Lockyer said. "This settlement is an important victory in the ongoing effort to end tobacco advertising that targets our children and helps them get hooked on a deadly product," Lockyer said. "R.J.

No. 2 U.S. cigarette maker R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. said it would raise list prices on some of its brands and reduce retail discounts on others as it faced higher expenses. Discounts to retailers will be cut by $1 a carton on the company's most popular brands, effectively raising the cost of a pack of Kool, Doral and most Camel varieties by 10 cents, a Reynolds spokesman said. The Winston-Salem, N.C.

R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Holdings Inc. is offering a lump-sum payment to some workers and retirees in a move designed to ensure their pension benefits. The country's second-largest cigarette maker said the offer had nothing to do with projections of its financial future after a potentially devastating $36.28-billion punitive damages verdict in a lawsuit by Florida smokers. The eligible workers and retirees total fewer than 200.

R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. won an antitrust lawsuit brought by a discount cigarette retailer that sought more than $60 million in damages. An eight-person federal jury ruled that R.J. Reynolds didn't violate antitrust rules. Cigarettes Cheaper, based in Benicia, Calif., claimed the company hurt its business by not including it in discounts and two-for-one deals on Reynolds products. A Cigarettes Cheaper spokesman said the retailer planned to appeal the ruling.

R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. will pay $1.46 million as part of a settlement with New York, Illinois and Maryland over the marketing of Kool cigarettes. R.J. Reynolds agreed to "substantial limitations" on future "Kool Mixx" campaigns that authorities said targeted children, New York Atty. Gen. Eliot Spitzer said. The suit also named British American Tobacco's Brown & Williamson unit, maker of Kool cigarettes, which Reynolds bought in July. A spokeswoman for R.J.