Tag: Altria Group

Firms Start Posting Warning Statements

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Altria Group, R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. and ITG Brands have started posting warning signs about cigarette smoking in more than 200,000 stores across the United States, reports CNN. The move represents one of the final steps in a lawsuit the Justice Department filed against the tobacco industry in 1999.
The signs include court-specified statements such as “Smoking kills, on average, 1,200 Americans. Every day.” They must be posted until June 30, 2025, in “highly visible places” in English and also Spanish in regions with significant numbers of Spanish speakers.
The postings come after years of dispute following U.S. District Court Judge Gladys Kessler’s judgment in 2006, when the tobacco companies were first ordered to make the corrective statements. The landmark judgment found the industry defendants guilty of lying about the dangers of cigarettes and secondhand smoke.
The defendants lied “about the devastating health effects of smoking and environmental tobacco smoke, they suppressed research, they destroyed documents, they manipulated the use of nicotine so as to increase and perpetuate addiction, they distorted the truth about low tar and light cigarettes so as to discourage smokers from quitting, and they abused the legal system in order to achieve their goal—to make money with little, if any, regard for individual illness and suffering, soaring health costs, or the integrity of the legal system,” Kessler said in her final opinion.
R.J. Reynolds said these corrective statement signs appear on its website and had previously appeared in newspapers, television, radio and on pack inserts. “The tobacco industry has evolved considerably since this lawsuit was filed nearly 25 years ago, back in 1999,” a company spokesperson said. “Today, Reynolds American Inc. and its operating companies have a clear purpose to build ‘A Better Tomorrow’ by reducing the health impact of our business.”
July 3, 2023
Altria Completes Acquisition of Njoy

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Altria Group has completed its acquisition of Njoy Holdings. The tobacco giant has also updated its guidance for 2023 full-year adjusted diluted earnings per share (EPS) in connection with the transaction.
“The completion of this transaction is a transformative step in our goal of ‘Moving Beyond Smoking,’” said Billy Gifford, Altria’s CEO. “We are pleased to have received antitrust clearance, and we are now fully focused on responsibly accelerating U.S. adult smoker and adult vaper adoption of Njoy Ace, currently the only pod-based e-vapor product to receive marketing authorization from the FDA.
“Our updated 2023 full-year EPS guidance range includes planned investments behind the U.S. commercialization of Njoy Ace and reflects our goal to deliver strong shareholder returns while making progress toward our vision.”
“We are excited to combine our resources with Njoy’s talented team to benefit adult tobacco consumers across the country,” said Shannon Leistra, the new president and CEO of Njoy.
As a result of the transaction, Altria expects to deliver 2023 full-year adjusted diluted EPS in a range of $4.89 to $5.03, representing a growth rate of 1 percent to 4 percent from an adjusted diluted EPS base of $4.84 in 2022.
“Our 2023 full-year adjusted diluted EPS guidance range includes planned investments in support of the company’s vision, such as (i) continued smoke-free product research, development and regulatory preparation expenses, (ii) enhancement of the company’s digital consumer engagement system and (iii) marketplace activities in support of the company’s smoke-free products, including planned investments behind the U.S. commercialization of Ace,” Altria wrote in a press note.
Altria’s updated guidance range also includes estimated amortization charges of approximately $50 million for the remainder of 2023 related to intangible assets acquired in the transaction.
June 1, 2023
Waiting Period Expires for Njoy Purchase

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The waiting period under the U.S. Hart-Scott-Rodino Antitrust Improvements Act of 1976 has expired for Altria Group’s acquisition of Njoy Holdings.
This means no further regulatory review by the federal antitrust authorities is required in connection with the Transaction.
“Subject to the satisfaction of other customary closing conditions, we expect to complete the transaction in the second quarter of 2023,” Altria wrote in a statement.
May 26, 2023
Juul and Altria to Pay $60.5 Million in Minnesota Deal

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Juul Labs and Altria Group will pay more than $60 million to settle Minnesota litigation relating to Juul’s marketing practices, according to Law360.
Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison sued Juul in 2019, alleging its marketing was deliberately targeted to minors and that the company failed to adequately verify customers’ ages, as required by law.
In April, the parties announced a settlement without disclosing the terms pending public filing of the papers.
Under the terms of the consent judgment filed with the Hennepin County District Court, Juul and Altria—a one-time Juul investor—will jointly pay $60.5 million to the state over an eight-year period. Altria will foot $5 million of the bill, according to the agreement.
The deal is front-loaded and will require the companies to pay nearly 60 percent of the settlement in less than one year, according to the Attorney General’s office.
The agreement also prohibits Juul from marketing or selling to children and young adults, restricts the company’s ability to sponsor certain events and use outdoor advertising in the state, prevents it from distributing product samples and requires that it accurately disclose the nicotine content of its products, according to the judgment.
The deal with Minnesota follows a $438.5 million settlement with more than 30 states and territories in September, a $255 million deal in December to end economic loss claims in multidistrict litigation and a $23.8 million deal in March to resolve the city of Chicago’s suit, among others.
And Juul last month agreed to pay $462 million to settle claims with California, Colorado, Illinois, Massachusetts, New Mexico, New York and Washington, D.C., over youth marketing claims.
May 19, 2023
Altria Holds 2023 Annual Meeting

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Altria Group held its 2023 annual meeting of shareholders on May 18. During the meeting, CEO Billy Gifford provided brief remarks and addressed shareholder questions.
During the meeting, shareholders elected to a one-year term each of the 12 nominees for Altria’s board of directors (board) named in the company’s 2023 proxy statement; ratified the selection of PricewaterhouseCoopers as Altria’s independent registered public accounting firm for 2023; approved, on an advisory basis, the compensation of the Altria’s named executive officers (NEOs); approved, on an advisory basis, that future advisory votes on the compensation of Altria’s NEOs should be held annually; and rejected two shareholder proposals.
Following the annual meeting, Altria’s board declared a regular quarterly dividend of $0.94 per share, payable on July 10, 2023, to shareholders of record as of June 15, 2023.
May 18, 2023
Altria Settles Multiple Juul Cases

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Altria Group has reached agreement on terms to resolve at least 6,000 Juul-related state and federal cases for $235 million.
“While we continue to believe the claims against us are meritless, we believe this settlement avoids the uncertainty and expense of a protracted legal process and is in the best interest of our shareholders,” said Murray Garnick, Altria’s executive vice president and general counsel, in a statement. “This settlement brings to a close the vast majority of our pending Juul-related litigation.”
In October 2019, the U.S. Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation ordered the coordination or consolidation of federal individual and class action lawsuits related to Juul in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California for pretrial purposes. These cases include approximately 50 economic class actions, approximately 4,500 personal injury actions and approximately 1,500 government entity actions, including approximately 1,400 school district cases. These cases are covered by the agreement as well as cases in a related state court consolidated proceeding involving 750 cases.
This settlement does not apply to three cases brought by attorneys general, 35 cases brought by Native American tribes, 17 antitrust cases or three Canadian cases.
The settlement remains subject to the parties entering into one or more final settlement agreements approved by the relevant courts.
Altria expects to record a pre-tax charge of $235 million in the second quarter of 2023 and intend to treat such amount as a special item and exclude it from our adjusted diluted earnings per share.
May 10, 2023
Altria Reports First-Quarter Results

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Altria Group reported net revenues of $5.72 billion in the first quarter of 2023, down 2.9 percent from the comparable 2022 quarter. Revenues net of excise taxes declined 1.2 percent to $4.76 billion.
“We are off to a strong start and believe our businesses are on track to deliver against full-year plans,” said Altria CEO Billy Gifford in a statement. “Our tobacco businesses performed well in a challenging macroeconomic environment. We delivered strong adjusted diluted EPS growth of 5.4 percent, and we announced exciting progress toward our vision.
“We reaffirm our guidance to deliver 2023 full-year adjusted diluted EPS in a range of $4.98 to $5.13. This range represents an adjusted diluted EPS growth rate of 3 percent to 6 percent from a $4.84 base in 2022.”
During the quarter, Altria Group entered into an agreement to acquire Njoy Holdings for approximately $2.75 billion in cash at closing and up to an additional $500 million in cash payments that are contingent upon regulatory outcomes with respect to certain Njoy products.
In March, Altria exchanged its entire minority economic interest in Juul Labs for a nonexclusive, irrevocable global license to certain of Juul’s heated-tobacco intellectual property. As a result of the 2023 Juul transaction, Altria recorded a noncash, pretax loss of $250 million on the disposition of its Juul equity securities for the three months ended March 31, 2023.
Altria determined that the fair value of the intellectual property was not material to its financial statements. As a result, it did not record an asset associated with this intellectual property on its condensed consolidated balance sheet on March 31, 2023.
“The primary drivers of this conclusion were (i) our rights to the intellectual property being nonexclusive, (ii) there being no product or technology transferred to us associated with the intellectual property and (iii) there being no connection between the intellectual property and our current product development plans,” Altria wrote in a press note.
April 27, 2023
Altria to Face First Juul Marketing Trial

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Altria Group is set to face trial April 24 in a lawsuit by San Francisco’s public school district accusing the company of fueling a teen vaping epidemic through its investment in Juul Labs, reports Reuters. The tobacco giant owned a 35 percent share in Juul Labs from late 2018 until March 2023, when it exchanged its stake for license to certain Juul Lab’s heated tobacco intellectual properties.
Through its lawsuit, the San Francisco Unified School District wants to make Altria pay for the cost of tackling student vaping on school grounds.
Thousands of individuals, local government entities and states have filed similar cases against Altria. U.S. District Judge William Orrick in San Francisco, who presides over much of the litigation, chose the San Francisco school district’s as a test case.
Suggesting the San Francisco case lacks merit, Altria vowed to defend itself vigorously. “Most of the allegations raised in this suit occurred years before we made a minority economic investment in Juul,” the company said in a statement on April 20.
The April 24 trial will mark the second time one of those cases goes before a jury. An earlier trial brought by the state of Minnesota, ended in a settlement, though the terms have yet to be disclosed.
April 21, 2023
Minnesota Settles Juul Lawsuit

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Minnesota has settled its legal case against Juul Labs and Altria Group for deceptively marketing e-cigarettes. The terms of the deal will be kept confidential until formal papers are publicly filed with the court.
“After three weeks of trial highlighting and bringing into the public record the actions that Juul and Altria took that contributed to the youth vaping epidemic, we reached a settlement in the best interest of Minnesotans,” said Attorney General Keith Ellison in a statement.
“We followed in the footsteps of former Attorney General Skip Humphrey, who led the historic 1998 tobacco trial in Minnesota. Once again, Minnesota has demonstrated leadership in taking these cases head on, including going to trial to hold tobacco companies accountable, protect our community’s health and protect our kids. One of my goals in bringing this case was to send a message: We will not tolerate youth marketing of nicotine products in Minnesota,” said Ellison.
Minnesota’s deal comes less than a week after Juul Labs agreed to pay $462 million to settle similar claims brought by New York, California, Colorado, Illinois, Massachusetts, New Mexico and the District of Columbia.
Of the more than a dozen states and hundreds of local governments that have sued Juul, Minnesota was the first to go to trial. Filed in 2019, the state’s lawsuit alleges that Juul developed sleek devices and flavors that were appealing to youth and that Juul’s marketing deceptively attracted and addicted young people. In 2020, Minnesota amended its complaint to include Altria as a defendant: In 2018, Altria spent $12.8 billion to acquire a 35 percent share in Juul.
In a statement, Juul Labs stressed the importance of resolving legal challenges from the company’s past. “We are pleased to have reached a settlement with the state and will work to finalize this agreement over the coming weeks,” the company wrote.
Juul Labs has now settled with 48 states and territories, providing over $1 billion to participating states to further combat underage vaping and develop cessation programs. In addition, the company has resolved private litigation that covers more than 5,000 cases brought by approximately 10,000 plaintiffs.
“As we reach total resolution of the company’s past, we are focused on our path forward to maximize the value and impact of our product technology and scientific foundation,” wrote Juul. “Our technology already has transitioned over 2 million adult smokers from combustible cigarettes. And our priorities remain to secure authorization of our PMTAs [premarket tobacco product applications] based on the science and lead the category with innovation to accelerate our mission and advance tobacco harm reduction for over 31 million adult smokers in the U.S. and over 1 billion adult smokers worldwide.”
April 18, 2023
Survey: Americans Support Harm Reduction

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Two out of three Americans support tobacco harm reduction over blanket prohibition as the better policy approach to tobacco regulation, according to a survey released by Altria.
The survey also shows that 82 percent think it is important for the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to focus on making smoke-free tobacco products available to adult smokers to help them switch from cigarettes.
“There is clear, overwhelming support for the FDA embracing harm reduction for the 30 million American adults who smoke. That means providing adult smokers who are unable or unwilling to quit with wider access to smoke-free alternatives and providing them the information and support to help them switch,” said Paige Magness, senior vice president of regulatory affairs at Altria Client Services. “Pursuing harm reduction is one of the most powerful steps the FDA can take to deliver on its mission to reduce tobacco-related death and disease in the U.S. It is our hope that the FDA will listen to these voices as it sets out its policy agenda for the coming years.”
The survey also shows that 90 percent agree that the FDA has a responsibility to accurately inform adult tobacco consumers about the risks associated with different tobacco products, and 88 percent agree that the FDA has a responsibility to address the widespread misperception that nicotine causes cancer.
Most adults also agree that policies that ban tobacco products will lead to illicit markets for tobacco products, endangering public health, youth and communities of color.
“Most Americans understand that prohibition-based policies don’t work and that it’s much better for public health to keep tobacco products legal and regulated,” said Magness. “Harm reduction is the better path forward. With harm reduction, regulators provide adult smokers with information, choice and support to expand the off-ramp from smoking—while also continuing to drive down underage use.”
The survey results also underscore the clear expectations that adults have for physicians to help adult smokers who want to switch, according to Altria. Seventy-nine percent agree that if certain tobacco products have been scientifically shown to be less risky than cigarettes, physicians have a responsibility to communicate this information to their patients who are adult tobacco consumers and have not successfully quit smoking by using traditional cessation therapies.
In addition to general population adults, the survey asked primary care physicians about their views on tobacco harm reduction. Of those surveyed, 89 percent support tobacco harm reduction as a public health concept and 85 percent believe it is important for the FDA to focus on making smoke-free tobacco products available to adult smokers to help them switch from cigarettes to less harmful alternatives.
Policy professionals were also surveyed and overwhelmingly believe that harm reduction is a better approach for the FDA to focus on than prohibition (78 percent), that tobacco products should remain legal so they can be properly regulated (77 percent) and that the FDA has a responsibility to accurately inform adult tobacco consumers about the different levels of risk associated with tobacco products (96 percent).
April 14, 2023