{"id":3691,"date":"2016-01-26T04:23:40","date_gmt":"2016-01-26T04:23:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/?p=3691"},"modified":"2016-01-26T06:22:16","modified_gmt":"2016-01-26T06:22:16","slug":"class-action-lawsuit-planned-against-american-spirit-cigarettes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/?p=3691","title":{"rendered":"Class-action lawsuit planned against American Spirit cigarettes"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"American<\/p>\n

This story is actually a few weeks old, but I just now heard of it. I found out about it while arguing with someone who claims that American Spirit cigarettes are better for you than other brands (The FDA has warned American Spirit to stop with its “natural” and “additive-free” advertising.<\/p>\n

Anyway, a class-action lawsuit being planned in Florida intends to take bolder action than the FDA.\u00a0From the Santa Fe New Mexican:<\/a><\/p>\n

A Florida law firm this week filed the first attempt at a class-action lawsuit against the Santa Fe-based company and its parent, Reynolds American Inc. of Winston-Salem, N.C., claiming the cigarette maker\u2019s packaging and advertising are intended to mislead smokers into thinking American Spirit cigarettes are healthier than other tobacco products.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The FDA last August warned American Spirit to drop its advertising of being “organic” and “additive-free.” Now, since then, I’ve seen American Spirit ads in Sports Illustrated that still say “organic” and “additive-free,” however, I see in this story an explanation. The FDA told American Spirit <\/a>to come up with a plan for “corrective actions.” So, even though they’ve been given a stern warning by the Feds, American Spirit has continued with its dubious marketing.<\/p>\n

From the Santa Fe New Mexican:<\/p>\n

\n

The lawsuit filed\u00a0(in October 2015)\u00a0in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida by Justin Sproule notes that American Spirit sales increased by 86 percent from 2009 to 2014, as compared to an overall 17 percent decline in cigarette sales in the United States during the same period. Just this week, Reynolds American announced that it had agreed to sell the international rights to the brand to Japanese buyers for $5 billion.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n

\n
\n

The complaint seeks damages on behalf of Sproule and others who \u201csmoke American Spirits because they have been deceived by claims, labels and advertising into regarding them as safer than other cigarettes.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

Descriptions such as \u201cadditive-free,\u201d \u201cnatural\u201d and \u201corganic,\u201d the lawsuit says, \u201care patently deceptive, especially in today\u2019s market, where these terms have a potent meaning for the health-and-environmentally-conscious consumer.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\n

The company also exploits its marketing message in other ways, the complaint says, by selling its cigarettes in health food stores. \u201cAnd it accompanies its cigarettes with literature from \u2018America\u2019s leading natural foods teacher\u2019 who claims that the cigarettes are medicinal and that Native Americans smoke such additive free cigarettes without developing cancer.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I think it’s also interesting that the lawsuit is being filed in Florida. Florida has become a very unfriendly place for the tobacco industry. Many years ago, in what’s known as the Engle Case,<\/a> the tobacco industry lost a massive $145 billion class-action lawsuit in Florida. The Florida Supreme Court threw that settlement out, saying the case couldn’t be decided on a class-action basis and that each victim (or victim’s family) that was sickened or killed by tobacco had to file their suits individually.<\/p>\n

Since then, partly because of the way the Supreme Court ruling was written, which essentially said the plaintiffs were right, they just couldn’t sue on a class-action basis, there’s been a veritable cottage industry of lawsuits against the tobacco industry in Flordia. Several thousand lawsuits, in fact, and the majority of those cases that have been decided have been decided in favour of the plaintiffs. Hundreds of millions of dollars in settlements have been paid out and hundreds of millions more of settlements are still caught up in the appeals process.<\/p>\n

I think because of this, a lot of attorneys who specialize in litigation against the tobacco industry have migrated to Florida. That’s where the action is, so to speak. So that doesn’t surprise me this class-action suit against American Spirit is coming out of Florida.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This story is actually a few weeks old, but I just now heard of it. I found out about it while arguing with someone who claims that American Spirit cigarettes are better for you than other brands (The FDA has warned American Spirit to stop with its “natural” and “additive-free” advertising. Anyway, a class-action lawsuit … Continue reading Class-action lawsuit planned against American Spirit cigarettes<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3692,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[704,24,73],"tags":[705,616],"class_list":["post-3691","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-american-spirit","category-engle-case","category-tobacco-litigation","tag-american-spirit","tag-tobacco-litigation"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/American-Spirit.jpg?fit=386%2C613&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4hpEa-Xx","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":3991,"url":"https:\/\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/?p=3991","url_meta":{"origin":3691,"position":0},"title":"FDA reaches agreement with Natural American Spirit","author":"Pepe Lepew","date":"March 17, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"The FDA and Natural American Spirit cigarettes have been locked in a legal battle for a couple of years now over the brand's advertising that its tobacco is \"natural\" and \"additive-free.\" The FDA\u00a0 reached an agreement (secretly, apparently) with American Spirit that allows the brand (owned by Santa Fe Natural\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "American Spirit"","block_context":{"text":"American Spirit","link":"https:\/\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/?cat=704"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/17097412_10154321361716127_2008838100163681812_o.jpg?fit=1200%2C630&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/17097412_10154321361716127_2008838100163681812_o.jpg?fit=1200%2C630&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/17097412_10154321361716127_2008838100163681812_o.jpg?fit=1200%2C630&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/17097412_10154321361716127_2008838100163681812_o.jpg?fit=1200%2C630&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/17097412_10154321361716127_2008838100163681812_o.jpg?fit=1200%2C630&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":4070,"url":"https:\/\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/?p=4070","url_meta":{"origin":3691,"position":1},"title":"What the hell? New American Spirit ad still has false advertising","author":"Pepe Lepew","date":"August 25, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"I thought the FDA and RJ Reynolds had reached an agreement to knock this stuff off -- a new ad in my Sports Illustrated last month STILL advertising that Natural Spirit cigarettes are \"100 percent additive free.\" I posted about this back in March.\u00a0This was a settlement in response to\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "American Spirit"","block_context":{"text":"American Spirit","link":"https:\/\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/?cat=704"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/08\/Natural-Spirit-Ad.jpg?fit=872%2C1200&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/08\/Natural-Spirit-Ad.jpg?fit=872%2C1200&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/08\/Natural-Spirit-Ad.jpg?fit=872%2C1200&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/08\/Natural-Spirit-Ad.jpg?fit=872%2C1200&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":4129,"url":"https:\/\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/?p=4129","url_meta":{"origin":3691,"position":2},"title":"Natural American Spirit finally drops “additive-free” from advertising","author":"Pepe Lepew","date":"December 1, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"Natural American Spirit finally drops \"additive-free\" from advertising Years of litigation have finally worked. Natural American Spirit has FINALLY changed its advertising. For years, this RJ Reynolds subsidiary had gotten away with advertising its cigarettes as being \"natural\" and \"additive free.\" Natural American Spirit had agreed in a settlement early\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/Natural-American-Spirit-382x500.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":3467,"url":"https:\/\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/?p=3467","url_meta":{"origin":3691,"position":3},"title":"FDA: End of the line for so-called “natural” and “additive-free” tobacco products","author":"Pepe Lepew","date":"August 28, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"Awesome story. The Food and Drug Administration told RJ Reynolds and other cigarette companies to stop it with their false advertising about \"natural tobacco\" cigarette products -- this includes the infamous \"American Spirit\" brand of cigarettes. American Spirit claims to be a \"natural, additive-free\" cigarette brand. A lot of people\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "American Spirit"","block_context":{"text":"American Spirit","link":"https:\/\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/?cat=704"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/08\/American-Spirit.jpg?fit=828%2C1139&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/08\/American-Spirit.jpg?fit=828%2C1139&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/08\/American-Spirit.jpg?fit=828%2C1139&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/08\/American-Spirit.jpg?fit=828%2C1139&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":3128,"url":"https:\/\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/?p=3128","url_meta":{"origin":3691,"position":4},"title":"Arrrggghhh — Sports Illustrated April 20 edition: An ad for cigarettes, followed by an ad about lung cancer","author":"Pepe Lepew","date":"April 19, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"\u00a0 This made my head explode. Sports Illustrated's policies on tobacco advertising are starting to make my head explode. We all know SI takes tobacco advertising -- a LOT of tobacco advertising. Not only do you find cigarette ads in nearly every issue, you will also find chewing tobacco ads\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Natural American Spirit"","block_context":{"text":"Natural American Spirit","link":"https:\/\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/?cat=493"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/Si-ads.jpg?fit=1200%2C849&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/Si-ads.jpg?fit=1200%2C849&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/Si-ads.jpg?fit=1200%2C849&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/Si-ads.jpg?fit=1200%2C849&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/Si-ads.jpg?fit=1200%2C849&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":3636,"url":"https:\/\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/?p=3636","url_meta":{"origin":3691,"position":5},"title":"Think Progress: The gun industry watched what happened to the tobacco industry and took notice","author":"Pepe Lepew","date":"December 2, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"A very compelling read from Think Progress about how the\u00a0gun industry watched regulators and the legal justice system cratered Big Tobacco, prompting the gun industry to take steps to make sure the same thing couldn't happen to it. Big Tobacco, while still vastly wealthy, is not nearly the\u00a0political powerhouse\u00a0that it\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Big Tobacco"","block_context":{"text":"Big Tobacco","link":"https:\/\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/?cat=10"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/guns_and_cigarettes_by_model850-d3ayai3.jpg?fit=1200%2C720&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/guns_and_cigarettes_by_model850-d3ayai3.jpg?fit=1200%2C720&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/guns_and_cigarettes_by_model850-d3ayai3.jpg?fit=1200%2C720&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/guns_and_cigarettes_by_model850-d3ayai3.jpg?fit=1200%2C720&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/guns_and_cigarettes_by_model850-d3ayai3.jpg?fit=1200%2C720&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3691","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3691"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3691\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/3692"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3691"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3691"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3691"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}