R J Reynolds Tobacco Co

RJR Boosts Cigarette Prices: R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. said its wholesale price increase on cheaper as well as premium brands, the first in 1 1/2 years, will amount to about 3 cents a pack. There was no immediate comment on pricing from Philip Morris USA, the biggest tobacco company, but industry analysts said the third biggest company, Brown & Williamson Tobacco Corp., told wholesalers it would match Reynolds' increase.

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.

R.J. Reynolds and Brown & Williamson said a jury in Florida returned a verdict in their favor, finding the cigarette makers were not responsible for a smoker's illness. The jury in the case found there was "ample evidence" that Emmett Hall, who suffers from lung cancer and pulmonary disease, had been aware of the potential health risks of smoking and still had chosen to smoke, R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. said. R.J. Reynolds is a unit of Winston-Salem, N.C.-based R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Holdings Inc.

Cigarette maker R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. said Wednesday that it agreed to temporarily halt a controversial advertising campaign featuring cartoons in hopes of negotiating a settlement to lawsuits filed by California and seven other states. In a hearing on a lawsuit brought by California Atty. Gen. Jerry Brown, Reynolds voluntarily offered to suspend distribution of compact disc recordings at events sponsored by its Camel Farm campaign, which promotes independent bands.

R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. said that 16 million cigarettes sent to Japan, found to contain herbicide levels higher than U.S. legal limits, will not be sold. Company spokesman David Fishel said in a telephone interview from his Winston-Salem, N.C., office that none of the cigarettes, a special Japanese version of Winston Lights, reached Japanese consumers, but some were used for testing and promotional marketing.

R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co., the No. 2 U.S. cigarette maker, said that it has spun off its Targacept Inc. subsidiary, which develops nicotine-related pharmaceuticals, into a privately held company. Targacept was formed by R.J. Reynolds, a wholly owned subsidiary of R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Holdings Inc., in 1997. R.J. Reynolds, which contributed a portfolio of patents and intellectual property to Targacept, said it will own 43% of the newly formed company on a fully diluted basis.

R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. said that it has pulled out of a $5-billion plan to help tobacco farmers absorb the expected fallout from the $206-billion tobacco settlement with the states. Reynolds said it will not give money to foundations that the industry plan would have established to help farmers who are expected to grow less tobacco as higher cigarette prices go into effect, possibly depressing sales. Instead, the nation's No.

R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. must pay an Arkansas man more than $9 million for his wife's death from cancer, a federal appeals court in St. Louis said in a ruling made public Monday. The court upheld an Arkansas jury's verdict that Pall Mall cigarettes were defectively designed and caused the fatal lung cancer of Mary Jane Boerner, who smoked the cigarettes for 36 years. The court also cut the punitive damage award to $5 million from $15 million.

It was an unusual moment: Anti-cigarette advocates gathered to eulogize an heir to the giant R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. * That was the scene Thursday in Santa Monica as no-smoking crusader Patrick Reynolds conducted a memorial service for his half-brother, R.J. Reynolds III. R.J. Reynolds, a 60-year-old grandson and namesake of the cigarette company founder, died June 28 of smoking-related emphysema. "We agreed to disagree about tobacco issues," said Patrick Reynolds, 45, of Beverly Hills.

R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. settled a lawsuit alleging it violated the $206-billion national tobacco accord by mailing free cigarettes to Californians, said state Atty. Gen. Bill Lockyer. The settlement, approved in San Diego Superior Court on Dec. 28 and announced Friday, lets R.J. Reynolds mail free cigarettes only to adults who have given their consent and after it verifies each recipient is an adult, Lockyer said.

Anti-smoking activists Tuesday praised the attorneys general of California and seven other states for suing cigarette maker R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. for allegedly violating the terms of a decade-old agreement banning the use of cartoon characters in advertisements. The California complaint was filed in San Diego County Superior Court.

Dozens of women's and public health organizations called on R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. to remove from the market its Camel No. 9 cigarettes, a brand they say is cynically aimed at getting young, fashion-conscious women and girls to start smoking. The claim was denied by an R.J. Reynolds spokesman.

Five U.S. senators asked the Federal Trade Commission to investigate what they claimed were R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co.'s attempts to appeal to teenage girls with ads for its sleekly packaged Camel No. 9 cigarettes. R.J. Reynolds says the cigarettes are aimed at adults. Democratic Sens. Frank R. Lautenberg of New Jersey, Tom Harkin of Iowa, Sherrod Brown of Ohio, Edward M. Kennedy of Massachusetts and Richard J. Durbin of Illinois said the cigarettes "appeal to teenage girls' desire to be 'chic.'

R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. has agreed to a domestic ban on its line of flavored cigarettes such as Twista Lime and Mocha Taboo, which critics say are marketed to youths. The tobacco giant, a unit of Winston-Salem, N.C.-based Reynolds American Inc., settled a broad investigation of its domestic sales and marketing without paying any penalty. The company agreed to stop giving cigarettes names that allude to candy, fruit, desserts or alcoholic beverages, according to New York Atty. Gen.

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.

Tobacco companies put more than $700 million aside Monday rather than hand it over to the states in their battle over how much cigarette makers owe this year under a landmark 1998 settlement. R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. paid the states about $1.4 billion but withheld $647 million, putting it in a "disputed payments account," Reynolds general counsel Charles Blixt said. Blixt said the company was playing by the rules of the agreement: "This is the mechanism by which we withhold money."

The Supreme Court on Tuesday rejected a free-speech challenge by two tobacco companies over California's anti-smoking ads. Reynolds American Inc.'s R.J. Reynolds Tobacco unit and Loews Corp.'s Lorillard Tobacco unit argued that the ads were unconstitutional because the tobacco companies were being forced to pay for advertisements that criticized the industry.

The California Supreme Court on Thursday overturned a $14.8-million state fine levied against R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. for handing out free cigarettes at a beer fest, a biker rally and other public events. The seven justices unanimously upheld California's 1991 law against cigarette giveaways and ruled that the tobacco company had violated it. But the high court sent the case back to a lower court to consider whether the fine was excessive. R.J.