Massachusetts Attorney General's Office Reaches a $600 Million Settlement with Several Tobacco Companies

According to a report from Boston on August 14th, the Office of the Massachusetts Attorney General has reached a $600 million settlement agreement with major tobacco manufacturers, marking the largest settlement in recent history for the office.

The state attorney general, Andrea Joy Campbell, stated that...

For decades, the major tobacco manufacturers in the country have been marketing smoking products to young people. This settlement is evidence of our ongoing efforts to hold these companies accountable for their actions, which have caused irreversible harm to public health and safety.

The statement specifies that this transaction involves disputed funds from the 1998 Master Settlement Agreement, in which major tobacco companies agreed to cease marketing products to children and to pay billions of dollars to states to compensate for medical expenses caused by smoking.

This settlement involves subsidiaries of several tobacco giants, as follows:

Philip Morris USA, a subsidiary of Altria Group, Japan Tobacco International USA, Inc., a subsidiary of Japan Tobacco International, Imperial Tobacco Limited/ITL (USA) Limited, a subsidiary of Imperial Brands, and R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company, a subsidiary of British American Tobacco acquired in 2017, will collectively pay $600 million to the federal general fund in the current fiscal year, with additional payments to follow annually.

Massachusetts received $41 million from this agreement, following last year's $462 million multi-state settlement reached by e-cigarette company JUUL.

Since the MSA agreement was reached in 1998, Massachusetts has received billions of dollars in payments each year from major tobacco companies. However, in some years, certain manufacturers have withheld funds, leading to disputes totaling hundreds of millions of dollars.

The Office of the Attorney General stated that the current settlement has resolved annual disputes from the past seven years and expedited the resolution process for other disputes. In addition to the $600 million payment, the company is also required to withhold less funds in the coming years, meaning that Massachusetts will receive higher annual payments in the future.

Here is a list of some tobacco companies that participated in the Master Settlement Agreement (MSA):