(NewMediaWire) - May 22, 2015 - Washington, D.C. - The American Heart Association is very pleased with today’s ruling by the D.C. Circuit Court against the tobacco industry. The court upheld almost all of a lower court ruling that the tobacco industry must issue “corrective statements” about the dangers of tobacco and its practices of marketing to children. Despite ongoing efforts by the industry to get the courts to weaken the corrective statements, today’s ruling brings us one step closer to holding it accountable for decades of deception and profiting from the death and disease caused by its products.

The D.C. Circuit Court overturned only one part of the lower court ruling.  It rejected a requirement that all corrective statements include a preamble stating that “[a] Federal Court has ruled that [the manufacturers] deliberately deceived the American public” about the dangers of cigarettes and has “ordered [them] to make this statement.” While we are disappointed with this part of the ruling, the court did not argue against the accuracy of the preamble language itself. The ruling was based solely on a determination that requiring the preamble is not an acceptable legal remedy under RICO (Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act).

We now look forward to the publication of the corrective statements. It is time for the American public to be fully informed about the tobacco industry’s unconscionable behavior.

 

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For media inquiries, please contact Courtney Doby at courtney.doby@heart.org or 202-785-7935.