California sues Big Tobacco to pay in full - Yahoo! News

California sues Big Tobacco to pay in full - Yahoo! News: "Tue Apr 18, 6:15 PM ET

NEW YORK (Reuters) - California on Tuesday became one of the first states to sue cigarette-makers to force them to pay their share of the total of $1.2 billion the companies say they do not owe because they lost business to discounters.
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In 1998, tobacco companies settled lawsuits brought by states by agreeing to pay $206 billion to provide medical care for ailing smokers. The settlement lets cigarette-makers cut their payments if they lose market share to rivals, often discounters, that did not sign the landmark accord.

Big Tobacco says discounters in 2003 won enough of their business to trigger the reduced payments. But the states say they still are owed the full sums because they met another requirement: they 'diligently' collected payments from non-signing companies."