|
Citing $206 billion tobacco settlement, FTC drops Joe Camel suit
Updated Jan. 27, 1999
5:10 p.m. ET
WASHINGTON, D.C (Court TV)— Insisting that the $206 billion settlement between 46 states and the tobacco companies had achieved its objective, the Federal Trade Commission has dropped its suit against R.J. Reynolds for alleged unlawful marketing of cigarettes to minors.
In its suit, the FTC accused R.J. Reynolds of improperly targeting children in its popular Joe Camel advertising campaign.
In May 1997, the Commission, believing that the tobacco company's advertising practices endangered minors, sought a court order prohibiting R.J. Reynolds from using Joe Camel and requiring the company to send public education messages discouraging minors from smoking. It also demanded the company keep a record of sales to underage smokers.
[Read the FTC's order dismissing the Joe camel suit]
However, under the tobacco settlement reached in November 1998, the industry is banned from using billboard and transit advertisements and cannot use cartoon characters such as Joe Camel in their ads. This, the FTC said, accomplished the mission of its suit and led to a unanimous decision to dismiss the case without prejudice.
"The November 23 Master Settlement Agreement specifically bans the use of all cartoon characters, including Joe Camel, in the advertising, promotion, packaging, and labeling of any tobacco product," the FTC said in the order. The order also notes that the settlement requires companies to help finance programs to combat underage smoking.
" The most important elements of the relief set out in the Commission's notice order should be accomplished without the need for further litigation in this case," the order stated.
Some tobacco settlement detractors criticized the agreement because it failed to penalize the companies if the number of underage smokers failed to decrease.
Mark Gottlieb, an attorney for the Tobacco Liability Project at the Northeastern School of Law, felt that the agreement sold out the promise of state attorneys' general to protect children from the dangers of smoking. He called the omission of industry penalization "a shameful omission," a criticism that may be shared by critics of the FTC's decision to drop the Joe Camel suit.
But the FTC insisted its objectives were accomplished and that it will continue to monitor the advertising practices of the tobacco industry.
"We're a law enforcement agency and while we don't have the authority to punish the tobacco industry, we have the ability to get public funds," said FTC spokesperson Victoria Streitfeld. "In our cease and desist order [against R.J. Reynolds], we were on a campaign to get public education funds to educate the public about the dangers of smoking and to forbid the use of Joe Camel. The settlement did that and rendered the order mute."
"The decision was made perspectively, and we're going to continue to monitor the advertising practices of the of the tobacco industry," Streitfeld continued. "If there's any deception in smoking advertising, we've assured the public that we filed another order against the industry."
Even after the Commission first announced its intent to drop the suit in December, R.J. Reynolds continued to deny wrongdoing. It insisted that there was no proof that the Joe Camel character increased smoking in minors and that the suit trampled its constitutional right to advertise. R.J. Reynolds attorneys had called the FTC's decision to dismiss the case "eight years overdue."
Court TV's Bryan Robinson contributed to this report.
| 
