Altria Group (NYSE:MO), Lorillard (NYSE:LO), Reynolds American (NYSE:RAI) Battle Back Against Justice Department

Cigarette manufacturers Altria Group (NYSE:MO), Lorillard (NYSE:LO) and Reynolds American (NYSE:RAI) are fighting back against proposed requirements of the Justice Department in a lawsuit that has been going on for 12 years.

The nation's largest cigarette manufacturers on Thursday said the Justice Department's proposed corrective statements about smoking's dangers are inflammatory and inaccurate and violate guidelines set by the court overseeing the lawsuit.

The tobacco companies, including Philip Morris USA, maker of top-selling Marlboro cigarettes, also asked a U.S. district judge to toss out the 12-year-old lawsuit, saying the Food and Drug Administration's authority over the industry makes the court's involvement unnecessary.

Last week, the Justice Department released 14 "corrective statements" that it says the companies should be required to make as part of the lawsuit. It wants the companies to admit that they lied to the public and would force the industry to pay for an advertising campaign of self-criticism.

But the companies said the proposed statements don't meet the court's requirements that the statements be "purely factual and uncontroversial." They also said the proposed statements are "plainly designed soley to shame and humiliate" the companies.




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