Altria Announces Agreement to Resolve Vast Majority of JUUL-Related State and Federal Litigation
10 Maio 2023 - 4:01PM
Business Wire
- Once final, the settlement involves at least 6,000 pending
e-vapor cases related to JUUL Labs, Inc. (“JUUL”)
Altria Group, Inc. (Altria) (NYSE:MO) announces that we have
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. “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 (“Settlement Agreements”)
approved by the relevant courts.
We expect 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.
Altria’s Profile
We have a leading portfolio of tobacco products for U.S. tobacco
consumers age 21+. Our Vision is to responsibly lead the transition
of adult smokers to a smoke-free future (Vision). We are Moving
Beyond Smoking™, leading the way in moving adult smokers away from
cigarettes by taking action to transition millions to potentially
less harmful choices – believing it is a substantial opportunity
for adult tobacco consumers, our businesses and society.
Our wholly owned subsidiaries include leading manufacturers of
both combustible and smoke-free products. In combustibles, we own
Philip Morris USA Inc. (PM USA), the most profitable U.S. cigarette
manufacturer, and John Middleton Co. (Middleton), a leading U.S.
cigar manufacturer. Our smoke-free portfolio includes ownership of
U.S. Smokeless Tobacco Company LLC (USSTC), the leading global
moist smokeless tobacco (MST) manufacturer, and Helix Innovations
LLC (Helix), a leading manufacturer of oral nicotine pouches.
Additionally, we have a majority-owned joint venture, Horizon
Innovations LLC (Horizon), for the U.S. marketing and
commercialization of heated tobacco stick products and, through a
separate agreement, we have the exclusive U.S. commercialization
rights to the IQOS Tobacco Heating System® and Marlboro HeatSticks®
through April 2024.
Our equity investments include Anheuser-Busch InBev SA/NV (ABI),
the world’s largest brewer and Cronos Group Inc. (Cronos), a
leading Canadian cannabinoid company.
The brand portfolios of our tobacco operating companies include
Marlboro®, Black & Mild®, Copenhagen®, Skoal® and on!®.
Trademarks and service marks related to Altria referenced in this
release are the property of Altria or its subsidiaries or are used
with permission.
Learn more about Altria at www.altria.com and follow us on
Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn.
Forward-Looking and Cautionary Statements
This release contains certain forward-looking statements with
respect to the Settlement Agreements, which are subject to various
risks and uncertainties and are made pursuant to the Safe Harbor
Provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995.
These forward-looking statements relate to, among other things, the
finality of the Settlement Agreements. Factors that may cause
actual results to differ include failure by the parties to reach
agreement on the final terms of the Settlement Agreements, failure
of the relevant courts to grant final approval of the Settlement
Agreements and additional legal proceedings instituted against us.
Other risk factors are detailed from time to time in our publicly
filed reports, including our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the
year ended December 31, 2022 and our Quarterly Reports on Form
10-Q. These forward-looking statements speak only as of the date of
this press release. We assume no obligation to provide any
revisions to, or update, any projections and forward-looking
statements contained in this release.
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