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Philip Morris Companies Inc.


Self Description

May 2002: A corporate conglomerate (e.g. Kraft/General Foods) whose roots are in the tobacco business. "We are the largest consumer packaged goods company on earth. We are also 175,000 talented and diverse employees, who keep Philip Morris Companies' business fundamentals strong and its companies growing. Our people are the force behind more than four decades of contributions to the communities in which we operate. They are also key players in helping to find reasonable solutions to many of society's concerns about our businesses." http://www.philipmorris.com/about_pm/about_pm_main.asp

Third-Party Descriptions

June 2009: "Philip Morris, the country's largest manufacturer of tobacco products, supported the legislation, saying it hopes to develop new reduced-risk offerings. The rest of the industry opposed the measure, saying it would freeze market share and give Philip Morris an unfair advantage."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/06/11/AR2009061100323.html

July 2008: "A spokesman for the company that owns Philip Morris, whose Marlboro menthol brands are among those cited in the study, Wednesday denied that it has adjusted menthol levels as a way to lure young smokers."

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/17/business/17menthol.html

June 2008: "Some lawmakers have said the decision to exempt menthol from the bill’s flavorings ban was intended to win support for the legislation from Philip Morris, the country’s dominant tobacco company, whose Marlboro Menthol is the second-leading menthol brand."

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/01/business/01menthol.html

June 2008: "The US Supreme Court has agreed once again to take up the case of a smoker's widow in Oregon who was awarded $79.5 million in punitive damages against the tobacco firm Philip Morris."

http://www.csmonitor.com/2008/0610/p02s01-usju.html

May 2008: "The reason menthol is seen as politically off limits, despite those concerns, is that mentholated brands are so crucial to the American cigarette industry. They make up more than one-fourth of the $70 billion American cigarette market and are becoming increasingly important to the industry leader, Philip Morris USA, without whose lobbying support the legislation might have no chance of passage."

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/13/business/13menthol.html

February 2008: '“When we make those grants, the control of the grant is by the researchers, and we ask them to publish their results and to make sure to make public that we funded it,” said Bill Phelps, a spokesman for Philip Morris U.S.A., the largest tobacco company in the United States. “We think that the research we’ve funded has contributed to the base of scientific knowledge.” He declined to disclose how much the company spends on research grants.'

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/04/education/04tobacco.html

June 2007: Lisa Watson and Loretta Lawson sued Philip Morris for its marketing of Marlboro Lights and Cambridge Lights under the Arkansas Deceptive Trade Practices Act. The women say the company designed its cigarettes to score artificially low in tar and nicotine under the testing procedure required by the Federal Trade Commission.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/06/11/AR2007061100864.html

October 2006: Tuesday, the case arrives at the US Supreme Court where lawyers for Philip Morris are asking the justices to strike down the punitive damage award as constitutionally excessive and fundamentally unfair. The case, Philip Morris v. Mayola Williams, is being closely watched to see whether a majority of justices are willing to issue strict guidelines to identify when a punitive damage award is unconstitutionally excessive.

http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/1031/p03s03-usju.html

December 2005: Philip Morris USA won a legal victory yesterday when the Illinois Supreme Court reversed a $10.1 billion lower-court verdict that held the company, and its parent, Altria Group Inc., liable for allegedly misleading consumers about the risk of developing cancer from smoking its 'light' cigarettes.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/12/15/AR2005121502034.html

Relationships

RoleNameTypeLast Updated
Owned by (partial or full, past or present) Altria Group Organization May 12, 2004
Financial Supporter of (past or present) Cooperation (past or present) National Smokers Alliance Organization Jul 2, 2007
Organization Head/Leader (past or present) Geoffrey Bible Person
Organization Head/Leader (past or present) Hamish Maxwell Person May 12, 2004
Organization Executive (past or present) Michael "Mike" E. Szymanczyk Person Jul 7, 2011

Articles and Resources

36 Articles and Resources. Go to:  [Next 16]

Date Fairness.com Resource Read it at:
Aug 06, 2009 Big Insurance, Big Tobacco and You

QUOTE: the insurance industry is taking these [consumer fraud, incorrect statistics] and other flim-flams straight from the tobacco industry's playbook.

 PR Watch
Jun 15, 2009 Tobacco Regulation Is Expected to Face a Free-Speech Challenge

QUOTE: The marketing and advertising restrictions in the tobacco law that Congress passed last week are likely to be challenged in court on free-speech grounds. The controversy... involves tension between the right of tobacco companies to communicate with adult smokers and the public interest in preventing young people from smoking.

 New York Times
Jun 12, 2009 Senate Passes Bill to Let FDA Regulate Tobacco

QUOTE: Landmark legislation approved by the Senate yesterday will give the federal government sweeping new powers to oversee tobacco products, allowing regulators to control factors including the amount of addictive nicotine in a cigarette and how that cigarette is packaged and marketed.

 Washington Post
Jul 16, 2008 Study Finds Manipulation of Menthol Levels

QUOTE: A new Harvard study claims that the tobacco industry in recent years has manipulated menthol levels in cigarettes to hook youngsters and maintain loyalty among smoking adults. The report could further inflame a controversy over menthol in pending tobacco legislation.

 New York Times
Jun 30, 2008 Black Lawmakers Seek Restrictions on Menthol Cigarettes

QUOTE: The 43-member caucus is taking aim at a provision in the bill that would ban candy-, fruit- and spice-flavored cigarettes but that specifically exempts menthol. In recent weeks the exemption has become the focus of controversy because menthol brands are heavily used by black smokers, who develop a large share of smoking-related cancers and other health risks.

 New York Times
Jun 10, 2008 $79 million smoker case not over: The U.S Supreme Court agreed Monday to hear – again – a case in which Philip Morris is disputing the size of a damage award.

QUOTE: In agreeing to hear the case, Philip Morris v. Mayola Williams, the justices have set the stage for a potential clash of judicial titans. On one side are the justices of the nation's highest court; on the other are the justices of the highest court in Oregon. The case will involve an examination of whether the Oregon Supreme Court acted properly in upholding the $79.5 million verdict on state law grounds after the US Supreme Court sent the case back to the Oregon court based on federal constitutional grounds.

 Christian Science Monitor
May 30, 2008 Black Group Turns Away From Bill on Smoking

QUOTE: A bill to regulate tobacco products has lost the support of a black antismoking group, which said Thursday that the legislation failed to adequately protect the health of African-Americans because it would not ban menthol flavorings from cigarettes.

 New York Times
May 13, 2008 Cigarette Bill Treats Menthol With Leniency

QUOTE: But those new strictures would exempt menthol — even though menthol masks the harsh taste of cigarettes for beginners and may make it harder for the addicted to kick the smoking habit. For years, public health authorities have worried that menthol might be a factor in high cancer rates in African-Americans.

 New York Times
Feb 04, 2008 Some Campuses Decide Tobacco Company Money Is ‘Tainted’

QUOTE: [Officials at a Texas university] decided two months ago to draw a line, and refuse all tobacco money for student groups, as well as for faculty research. “What it came down to for us was the ethical dimension,” said [one official]. “The leadership of the school felt that in some sense it was tainted money, that it is money gotten from a product that is significantly harming people.”

 New York Times
Jul 17, 2007 Tobacco Bill Includes Compromise and Criticism

QUOTE: As legislative changes go, the switch allowing cloves to be added to cigarettes instead of being banned was a relatively small one in a landmark bill to regulate tobacco products, but the bill’s detractors say it is symbolic of the bill’s unacceptable compromises.

 New York Times
Jun 25, 2007 Fred Thompson: The Philip Morris Candidate

QUOTE: If Fred Thompson is elected president, he will be the first federally registered lobbyist to become Commander in Chief. ... Thompson's prospective presidential bid stands out in another respect: No campaign has been so dominated by staffers and advisers who have worked on behalf of Philip Morris, one of the world's leading tobacco conglomerates and a leading force in promoting cigarette smoking.

 Huffington Post
Jun 12, 2007 Court Rejects Overtime Pay For Home-Care Workers: Justices Also Deny Venue Change in Tobacco Suit

QUOTE: The Supreme Court ruled yesterday that workers in the fast-growing home-care industry are not entitled to overtime pay. The court unanimously agreed that a 1975 Labor Department regulation exempting workers paid by third parties from minimum-wage and maximum-hour rules was a valid exercise of the power given to the agency by Congress.

 Washington Post
Jun 06, 2007 Suit Accuses Tobacco Firms of Targeting Black Consumers, Seeks $1 Billion in Damages

QUOTE: Accusing tobacco companies of preying on black people, a Miami attorney is seeking $1 billion in damages on behalf of a Coral Springs, Fla., woman whose mother and grandmother both died of smoking-related health problems.

 Law.com
Feb 20, 2007 Supreme Court Nixes Award Against Philip Morris

QUOTE: Justice Stephen G. Breyer said jurors may take into account that harm caused to others shows reprehensible conduct, but "a jury may go no further than this and use a punitive damages verdict to punish a defendant directly on account of harms it is alleged to have visited on nonparties."

 Washington Post
Oct 31, 2006 Supreme Court case: Are jury awards too high?: The High Court hears Tuesday a case where the widow of an Oregon smoker got $79.5 million.

QUOTE: The case...is being closely watched to see whether a majority of justices are willing to issue strict guidelines to identify when a punitive damage award is unconstitutionally excessive.

 Christian Science Monitor
Sep 14, 2006 Federal Judge Questions Data Used by Smokers to Define Class

QUOTE: A federal judge Wednesday expressed skepticism over a proposed class action lawsuit that would seek as much as $200 billion in damages against the tobacco industry for its allegedly deceptive marketing of light cigarettes.

 Law.com
Aug 18, 2006 New Limits Set Over Marketing for Cigarettes

QUOTE: A federal judge ordered strict new limitations on tobacco marketing on Thursday after finding that cigarette makers deserved to be punished for a decades-old conspiracy to deceive the public about the dangers of smoking.

 New York Times
Jul 07, 2006 Reversal of $145 Billion Punitives Verdict for Fla. Smokers Upheld

QUOTE: In a big victory for the tobacco industry, the Florida Supreme Court on Thursday unanimously upheld the reversal of a $145 billion punitive damages verdict awarded to 700,000 ailing Florida smokers...anti-tobacco lawyers say the ruling creates favorable conditions for individual members of the class to go forward with suits against cigarette makers.

 Law.com
May 31, 2006 From high court, warning to whistle-blowers: The justices find that public workers' criticisms aren't 'protected' speech.

QUOTE: US Supreme Court ruled Tuesday that public workers who make allegations of misconduct in official reports and in work-related statements may be disciplined for their speech without violating First Amendment protections.

 Christian Science Monitor
Apr 12, 2006 Hall: Unholy Alliance: Big Tobacco and Big Government join forces.

QUOTE: Major tobacco companies Philip Morris and R. J. Reynolds have accused the states of failing to enforce anti-competitive laws that were instituted as a part of the major tobacco settlement of 1998...In 2006 alone, Big Tobacco companies gave over $6 billion in settlement payments to the states.

 National Review

36 Articles and Resources. Go to:  [Next 16]