altria

Ben Schumin

Skoal, Copenhagen & Other Smokeless Tobaccos Recalled For Containing Metal Fragments

Putting smokeless tobacco in your mouth is one thing, putting smokeless tobacco containing metal fragments in your mouth is another. After receiving several reports of customers finding metal objects in their tobacco cans, tobacco giant Altria is recalling several of its most popular brands. [More]

Judge Rips Big Tobacco For “Ridiculous… Waste Of Precious Time” In Drafting Warning Ads

Judge Rips Big Tobacco For “Ridiculous… Waste Of Precious Time” In Drafting Warning Ads

Seventeen years after federal prosecutors sued the tobacco industry, a full decade after a court ruled that Big Tobacco’s biggest players had maintained an illegal racketeering enterprise in violation of the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organization [RICO] Act, and nearly seven years since they lost their appeal in that case, these companies are still dragging their feet creating the public warning ads they were ordered to make many, many years ago. The judge who has had to preside over this drawn-out ordeal has had enough. [More]

Regulators Settle Charges That Reynolds, Lorillard Merger Would Be Anticompetitive

Regulators Settle Charges That Reynolds, Lorillard Merger Would Be Anticompetitive

A year after the No. 2 and No. 3 cigarette brands in the country first announced they were planning to go all-in on a $27.4 billion merger, regulators have approved an order settling charges that the deal would be anticompetitive for the U.S. cigarette market, paving the way for the merger to move forward. [More]

(Rosalyn Davis)

Reynolds, Lorillard Must Sell Salem, Kool, Maverick & Winston Brands To Gain Approval Of $27.4B Mega-Cigarette Merger

You may recall that last July the No. 2 and No. 3 cigarette brands in the country announced they were planning to go all in on a $27.4 billion merger. This week the two companies received the blessing from federal regulators, as long as they divest four cigarette brands to a UK-based company. [More]

mendhak

Tobacco Companies Sue FDA Over Cigarette Packaging Guidelines

For more than 5 years, the FDA has had authority to regulate tobacco products, and last month, the agency issued guidance to the tobacco industry about when cigarette makers must seek FDA approval on changes to packaging. The country’s largest tobacco businesses now believe the FDA is overstepping its authority and violates their rights to free expression. [More]

Tassimo Offers Free Coffee To Registered Customers, Then Won't Register Anyone

Tassimo Offers Free Coffee To Registered Customers, Then Won't Register Anyone

Tassimo, a Kraft brand, is probably best known as the “those single-serve coffee brewers that aren’t Keurig.” Anita has one, and she received an e-mail from Kraft offering two free packages of coffee if she registered her brewer. Yay, free coffee! So she did just that, only to hit a brick wall of customer disservice. Not what you expect after buying a coffeemaker that retails for $140. [More]

FDA Banned Flavored Cigs, But Not Menthols. Why?

FDA Banned Flavored Cigs, But Not Menthols. Why?

Back in June we noted that the FDA was about to get a lot more say over the tobacco industry if the Senate approved a new bill. Well they did, and so yesterday the FDA flexed its new muscles by banning fruit, herb, spice, and candy flavorings from cigarettes. That’s right: clove cigarettes were just banned by the FDA, which is bad news for gothy teens and great news for everyone else.