Master Settlement Agreement
Encyclopedia
The Tobacco Master Settlement Agreement (MSA) was entered in November 1998, originally between the four largest US tobacco companies and the attorneys general of 46 states. The states settled their Medicaid lawsuits against the tobacco industry for recovery of their tobacco-related, health-care costs, and also exempted the companies from private tort
liability
regarding harm caused by tobacco use. In exchange, the companies agreed to curtail or cease certain tobacco marketing practices
, as well as to pay, in perpetuity, various annual payments to the states to compensate them for some of the medical costs
of caring for persons with smoking-related illnesses. The money also funds a new anti-smoking advocacy group
, called the American Legacy Foundation
, that is responsible for such campaigns as The Truth
. The settlement also dissolved the tobacco industry groups Tobacco Institute
, the Center for Indoor Air Research, and the Council for Tobacco Research. In the MSA, the OPMs (Original Participating Manufacturers) agreed to pay a minimum of $206 billion over the first twenty-five years of the agreement.
linking smoking to lung cancer and heart disease. In 1954 the British Doctors Study
confirmed the suggestion, based on which the government issued advice that smoking and lung cancer rates were related. In 1964 the United States Surgeon General
's Report on Smoking and Health likewise began suggesting the relationship between smoking and cancer.
By the mid-1950s, individuals in the United States began to sue the companies responsible for manufacturing and marketing cigarettes for damages related to the effects of smoking. In the forty years through 1994, over 800 private claims were brought against tobacco companies in state courts across the country. The individuals asserted claims for negligent manufacture, negligent advertising, fraud, and violation of various state consumer protection statutes. The tobacco companies enjoyed great success in these lawsuits. Only two plaintiffs ever prevailed, and both of those decisions were reversed on appeal. As scientific evidence mounted in the 1980s, tobacco companies claimed contributory negligence
as the adverse health effects were previously unknown or lacked substantial credibility.
The general theory of these lawsuits was that the cigarettes produced by the tobacco industry contributed to health problems among the population, which in turn resulted in significant costs to the states' public health systems. As Moore declared, "'[The] lawsuit is premised on a simple notion: you caused the health crisis; you pay for it.'" The States alleged a wide range of deceptive and fraudulent practices by the tobacco companies over decades of sales. Other states soon followed. The state lawsuits sought recovery for Medicaid and other public health expenses incurred in the treatment of smoking-induced illnesses. Importantly, the defenses of personal responsibility that were so effective for the tobacco industry in suits by private individuals were inapplicable to the causes of action alleged by the states.
regulation under certain circumstances, and stronger warning labels and restrictions on advertising. In exchange the companies would be freed from class-action suits and litigation costs would be capped.
This proposed congressional remedy (1997 National Settlement Proposal, a.k.a. the "June 20, 1997 Proposal") for the cigarette tobacco problem resembled the eventual Multistate Settlement Agreement, but with important differences. For example, although the congressional proposal would have earmarked 1/3 of all funds to combat teenage smoking, no such restrictions appear in the Multistate Settlement Agreement. In addition, the congressional proposal would have mandated Food & Drug Administration oversight and imposed federal advertising restrictions. It also would have granted immunity from state prosecutions; eliminated punitive damages in individual tort suits; and prohibited the use of class actions, or other joinder or aggregation devices without the defendant's consent, assuring that only individual actions could be brought. The congressional proposal called for payments to the States of $ 368.5 billion over twenty-five years. By contrast, assuming that the Majors would maintain their market share, the Multistate Settlement Agreement provides baseline payments of about $ 200 billion over twenty-five years. This baseline payment is subject to
The attorneys general did not have the authority to grant all this by themselves: the Global Settlement Agreement would require an act of Congress. Senator John McCain
carried the bill, which was much more aggressive than even the global settlement. However, in the spring of 1998, Congress rejected both the proposed settlement and an alternative proposal submitted by Senator John McCain of Arizona.
While the proposed legislation was being discussed in Congress, some individual states began settling their litigation against the tobacco industry. On July 2, 1997, Mississippi became the first. Over the next year, Florida, Texas, and Minnesota followed, with the four states recovering a total of over $ 35 billion.
Four states (Mississippi, Florida, Texas and Minnesota) settled with the OPMs before the MSA. The OPMs pay those four states (the "previously settled states") 17 per cent of the MSA per-cigarette payment amount for each cigarette sold in any state. Thus, the OPMs pay the settling and previously settled states 104.55 per cent of the per-cigarette amount for each cigarette sold. In 2005, OPM payments totaled about 2.2 cents per cigarette or $ 4.40 per carton.
, Minnesota
, Texas
and Mississippi
had already reached individual agreements with the tobacco industry.) The four manufacturers--Philip Morris USA
, R. J. Reynolds Tobacco Company, Brown & Williamson Tobacco Corp.
, and Lorillard Tobacco Company
--are referred to in the MSA as the Original Participating Manufacturers (OPMs).
This settlement process yielded two other national agreements:
market (United States Tobacco Company, now known as U.S. Smokeless Tobacco Company
) settled with the jurisdictions who signed the MSA, plus Minnesota and Mississippi.
As an incentive to join the MSA, the agreement provides that, if an SPM joined within ninety days following the MSA's "Execution Date," that SPM is exempt ("exempt SPM") from making annual payments to the settling states unless the SPM increases its share of the national cigarette market beyond its 1998 market share, or beyond 125% of that SPM's 1997 market share. If the exempt SPM's market share in a given year increases beyond those relevant historic limits, the MSA requires that the exempt SPM make annual payments to the settling states, similar to those made by the OPMs, but based only upon the SPM's sales representing the exempt SPM's market share increase.
SPMs joining the MSA after this ninety-day exempt period must, instead, make annual payments based upon all of the SPM's national cigarette sales for a given year. In addition to its annual payment obligations, in order [**9] to join the MSA now, a non-exempt SPM must, "within a reasonable time after signing the" MSA, pay the amount it would have been obligated to pay under the MSA during the time between the MSA's effective date and the date on which the SPM joined the agreement.
The addition of the Subsequent Participating Manufacturers meant that nearly all of the cigarette producers in the domestic market had signed the Multistate Settlement Agreement. Their addition was significant. The Majors allegedly feared that any cigarette manufacturer left out of a settlement (Non-Participating Manufacturers or NPMs) would be free to expand market share or could enter the market with lower prices, drastically altering the Majors' future profits and their ability to increase prices to pay for the settlement.
A section on enforcement gave jurisdiction to individual state courts to implement and enforce the term, and established a state enforcement fund ($50 million one-time payment). The participating manufacturers also paid the states' Attorney Fees.
For the OPMs, the payments are determined in accordance with their relative market share as of 1997. The payment amount of a particular OPM is also dictated by the "Volume Adjustment," which compares the number of cigarettes sold in each payment year to the number of cigarettes sold in 1997. If the number of cigarettes sold by an OPM in a given year is less than the number it sold in 1997, the Volume Adjustment allows that OPM to reduce its payment to the settling states. In other words, a reduction in the amount of cigarettes sold by the OPMs results in the settling states receiving less money.
The MSA sets forth specific amounts that the OPMs have agreed to pay the settling states each year. Those annual amounts are subject to a number of adjustments. The OPMs each pay a portion of the total annual payment according to each OPM's "Relative Market Share" for the preceding year.
For the SPMs, the payments are determined by their relative market share as compared to other SPMs. For the SPMs that joined the MSA within 90 days of its execution, the annual payments are determined by the number of cigarettes an SPM sells beyond the "grandfathered" volume—calculated as the higher of either the individual SPM's market share in 1998 (the year the MSA was executed) or 125% of the SPM's market share in 1997. If an SPM's sales volume or market share declines below the grandfathered amount, then it is not required to make any payments to the settling states. SPMs that failed to join the MSA within 90 days of its execution do not receive the benefit of any grandfathered amount.
Both exempt and non-exempt SPMs' annual payment obligations under the MSA are "calculated on the basis of the percentage of the four original participating manufacturers' total domestic market share represented by the SPM[s'] domestic market share . . . . In other words, the denominator in the calculation is the total OPM market share, not the total OPM and SPM market share." Furthermore, the parties agree that the amount the SPMs pay per cigarette is roughly the same as the per-cigarette amount that the OPMs pay under the MSA. To the extent the amount differs, the OPMs pay slightly more than the SPMs on a per cigarette basis.
The MSA includes a model escrow (or qualifying) act and provides strong incentives for settling states to adopt it. "[A] Qualifying Statute . . . is one that effectively and fully neutralizes the cost disadvantages that the Participating Manufacturers experience vis-a-vis Nonparticipating Manufacturers within the state."
The MSA encouraged settling states to adopt the model escrow act by providing that a settling state's allocated payment—that is, the portion of the annual MSA payment that a particular state receives in a given year—could be reduced by applying a non-participating manufacturers ("NPM") adjustment. That adjustment lowers a state's allocated share of the annual MSA payment if the OPMs lose market share to NPMs and if "a nationally recognized firm of economic consultants" determines that the MSA was "a significant factor contributing to the Market Share Loss for the year in question." The NPM adjustment does not apply to any state that has enacted and has in "full force and effect" a "qualifying" or model escrow statute. All settling states have enacted qualifying statutes.
The escrow statute is premised on the legislative finding that, in light of the MSA settling the states' claims against the major cigarette manufacturers, [i]t would be contrary to the policy of the State if tobacco product manufacturers who determine not to enter into such a settlement could use a resulting cost advantage to derive large, short-term profits in the years before liability may arise without ensuring that the State will have an eventual source of recovery from them if they are proven to have acted culpably. It is thus in the interest of the State to require that such manufacturers establish a reserve fund to guarantee a source of compensation and to prevent such manufacturers from deriving large, short-term profits and then becoming judgment-proof before liability may arise.
In light of that, the model escrow statute requires an NPM selling cigarettes in [*1122] a given state to do one of two things: 1) join the MSA, agreeing to "become a participating manufacturer (as that term is defined in section II(jj) of the [MSA]) and generally perform its financial obligations under the [MSA]," or 2) make similar annual payments into the state's escrow fund. An NPM's annual escrow payments in a particular state are calculated by multiplying a per-cigarette amount, established by the state's legislature and set forth in the statute, by the number of cigarettes the NPM sold in that state in the year for which payment is being made. The parties agree that this per-cigarette amount is roughly equivalent to the per-cigarette amount the MSA requires from OPMs and SPMs for sales which are not exempt. To the extent it differs, the OPMs pay slightly more than the SPMs, which pay slightly more than the NPMs.
The escrow statute specifically requires that the NPM place into a qualified escrow fund by April 15 of the year following the year in question the following amounts (as such amounts are adjusted for inflation)— 1999: $.0094241 per unit sold after the effective date of this act; 2000: $.0104712 per unit sold; for each of 2001 and 2002: $.0136125 per unit sold; for each of 2003 through 2006: $.0167539 per unit sold; for each of 2007 and each year thereafter: $.0188482 per unit sold.
During the drafting of the MSA, the OPMs and the settling states contemplated that many of the smaller tobacco companies would choose not to join the MSA. This failure to join posed a potential problem for both the OPMs and the settling states. The OPMs worried that the NPMs, both because they would not be bound by the advertising and other restrictions in the MSA and because they would not be required to make payments to the settling states, would be able to charge lower prices for their cigarettes and thus increase their market share.
One such incentive, called the NPM Adjustment, provides that the payments by the PMs to the settling states may be adjusted according to the "NPM Adjustment Percentage." According to this provision, if a nationally recognized firm of economic consultants determines that the PMs have lost market share as a result of compliance with the MSA, the PMs' required payments to the settling states will be reduced to account for the loss. The NPM Adjustment therefore gives the settling states an incentive to protect the market dominance of the PMs, because [*551] otherwise the settling states themselves will receive less funds.
In addition to the NPM Adjustment, the MSA contains other provisions to protect the PMs. Primary among these provisions is a requirement that the settling states adopt "complementary" legislation to effectuate the MSA, with a failure to do so resulting in substantial reductions in the yearly payments.
The settling states agreed to divide the annual MSA payment among themselves according to each state's preset allocable share, rather than according to the volume of sales made in a particular state in a given year. An NPM's payments into a state's escrow fund, on the other hand, were dependent on the number of cigarettes that the NPM sold in that state in a given year. Nevertheless, the originally enacted escrow statute based any refund of those escrowed funds payments on that state's allocable share of the national MSA payment. This refund provision, then, assumed an NPM would sell its cigarettes nationally.
If an NPM made the bulk of its sales in a few states, however, it could obtain a refund of those escrow payments in excess of what it would have paid each of those States had it been an SPM. For example, an NPM which made 50 per cent of its sales in Kansas (which has a relatively low allocable share) would obtain a release from its Kansas escrow fund of more than 49 per cent of its full escrow payment. In other words, the original allocable share release provision created an unintended loophole: it only operated as intended if the NPMs distributed their products nationally. In that circumstance, the NPMs' total escrow obligations to all states with similar tobacco statutes approximately totaled the payments those NPMs would have made under the MSA. If an NPM concentrated its sales in a few state with low allocable share percentages, however, the NPM could obtain a refund of much of its escrow payments. Because the Kansas percentage was so low—roughly 0.8 per cent—NPMs concentrated their sales within Kansas and a few other states to receive immediate escrow refunds from those states.
Rather than selling cigarettes nationally, several NPMs instead concentrated their sales in just a few states. Because the originally enacted escrow statute refunded escrow funds to the extent those funds exceeded each state's "allocable share" of the national MSA payment, NPMs were able to obtain refunds of most of the monies they had paid into a state's escrow fund. To illustrate, if an NPM only sold cigarettes in Kansas in 2006, the Kansas escrow statute would require that NPM to pay into the Kansas escrow fund $.0167539 for each cigarette the NPM sold in that state. Pursuant to the refund provision in the originally enacted Kansas escrow statute, however, the NPM could obtain a refund of all but .8336712% of those payments.
One commentator further explains that the calculations under the [originally enacted escrow] statutes were based on an assumption that a nonparticipating manufacturer sold cigarettes nationally. When this was the case, the statutes functioned as intended, permitting the NPM to obtain a refund of excess amounts placed in escrow in each state. However, when an NPM followed a regional sales strategy, as several did, the original escrow statutes allowed the NPM to obtain a refund that was much larger than intended.
To close this loophole, in late 2002, the National Association of Attorneys General ("NAAG") introduced the Allocable Share Release Repealer ("ASR Repealer"), a model statute which eliminated the ASR. In a memo dated September 12, 2003, Attorney General William H. Sorrell of Vermont, Chairman of the NAAG Tobacco Project, underscored the urgency of "all States taking steps to deal with the proliferation of NPM sales, including enactment of complementary legislation and allocable share legislation and consideration of other measures designed to serve the interests of the States in avoiding reductions in tobacco settlement payments." He stressed that "NPM sales anywhere in the country hurt all States," that NPM sales in any state reduce payments to every other State," and that "[a]ll States have an interest in reducing NPM sales in every State."
The "Allocable Share Amendment" ("Amendment") revised the originally enacted escrow statute's refund calculation to remove the reference to the enacting state's "allocable share" of the annual MSA payments. HN2The amended statute, therefore, now provides that an NPM will be entitled to a refund[t]o the extent that a tobacco product manufacturer establishes that the amount it was required to place into escrow, based on units sold in the state . . . in a particular year, was greater than the [MSA] payments, as determined pursuant to section IX(i) of that agreement including, after final determination of all adjustments, that such manufacturer would have been required to make based on such units sold had it been a participating manufacturer, the excess shall be released from escrow and revert back to such tobacco product manufacturer.
Thus, an NPM still has to pay annually into a state's escrow fund an amount calculated by multiplying the number of cigarettes the NPM sells in that state during the year in question by the same per-cigarette amount for that year as set forth in the state's escrow statute. The NPM can obtain a refund to the extent those escrowed funds are greater than the amount that the NPM would have had to pay under the MSA for that same year, based upon that same number of cigarettes sold.
in exchange for money, it appears that the tobacco industry has emerged from the state lawsuits even more powerful."
An article in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute
described the MSA as an "opportunity lost to curb cigarette use", citing public health researchers' views that not enough of the MSA money was being spent on anti-smoking measures. Dr. Stephen A. Schroeder wrote in the New England Journal of Medicine
that "Although U.S. smoking rates are slowly declining, progress toward that end [decreasing smoking] would be faster if federal policymaking matched both the rigor of the scientific evidence against tobacco use and the resolve of antitobacco advocates." Cigarette
consumption in the United States fell to a 50 year low in 2004.
Another criticism is the alleged favoritism shown to the major tobacco companies over smaller independent tobacco growers and sellers. Proponents of this argument claim that certain restrictions on pricing make it more difficult for small growers to compete with "Big Tobacco
". Twelve states have successfully fought against this argument in court during the last two years and the enforcement of the MSA continues throughout the United States in perpetuity.
Fellows within the Cato Institute
, such as Robert Levy
, assert that the lawsuit that brought on the tobacco settlement was instigated by a need to make beneficiary payments to Medicare
recipients. Following the passage of laws that eliminated the tobacco companies' ability to provide evidence in court for their defense, the tobacco companies were forced to settle. The big four tobacco companies agreed to pay the state governments several billion dollars but the government in turn was to protect the big four tobacco companies from competition. The Master Settlement Agreement, they argue, created an unconstitutional cartel arrangement that benefited both the government and big tobacco.
Robert Levy states:
The argument the Master Settlement Agreement created a cartel of the major U.S. cigarette makers, allowing them to charge "supracompetitive" prices for their product, was rejected by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit in 2007. The appellate court concluded that the Plaintiffs had not alleged sufficient facts to show that the MSA and two related state laws violated the federal Sherman Act.
. In many cases the bonds permit state and local governments to transfer the risk of declines in future master settlement agreement payments to bondholders. In some cases, however, the bonds are backed by secondary pledges of state or local revenues, which creates what some see as a perverse incentive
to support the tobacco industry, on whom they are now dependent for future payments against this debt.
Tort
A tort, in common law jurisdictions, is a wrong that involves a breach of a civil duty owed to someone else. It is differentiated from a crime, which involves a breach of a duty owed to society in general...
liability
Legal liability
Legal liability is the legal bound obligation to pay debts.* In law a person is said to be legally liable when they are financially and legally responsible for something. Legal liability concerns both civil law and criminal law. See Strict liability. Under English law, with the passing of the Theft...
regarding harm caused by tobacco use. In exchange, the companies agreed to curtail or cease certain tobacco marketing practices
Tobacco advertising
Tobacco advertising is the advertising of tobacco products or use by the tobacco industry through a variety of media including sponsorship, particularly of sporting events. It is now one of the most highly regulated forms of marketing...
, as well as to pay, in perpetuity, various annual payments to the states to compensate them for some of the medical costs
Health care prices
Unlike most markets for consumer services in the United States, the health care market generally lacks transparent market-based pricing. Patients are typically not able to comparison shop for medical services based on price, as medical service providers do not typically disclose prices prior to...
of caring for persons with smoking-related illnesses. The money also funds a new anti-smoking advocacy group
Advocacy group
Advocacy groups use various forms of advocacy to influence public opinion and/or policy; they have played and continue to play an important part in the development of political and social systems...
, called the American Legacy Foundation
American Legacy Foundation
The American Legacy Foundation is a 501 not-for-profit organization dedicated to preventing teen smoking and encouraging smokers to quit. It was established in March 1998 as a result of the Master Settlement Agreement between a coalition of attorneys general in 46 states and five United States...
, that is responsible for such campaigns as The Truth
TheTruth.com
TheTruth.com is an anti-smoking campaign in the United States. The campaign is run by the American Legacy Foundation, which was founded under the terms of the Master Settlement Agreement, between the US tobacco companies and 46 US states and 5 territories...
. The settlement also dissolved the tobacco industry groups Tobacco Institute
Tobacco Institute
The Tobacco Institute, Inc. was a United States tobacco industry trade group, founded in 1958 by the American tobacco industry.It was dissolved in 1998 as part of the Tobacco Master Settlement Agreement.-Founding:...
, the Center for Indoor Air Research, and the Council for Tobacco Research. In the MSA, the OPMs (Original Participating Manufacturers) agreed to pay a minimum of $206 billion over the first twenty-five years of the agreement.
Private lawsuits before the settlement
In September 1950, an article was published in the British Medical JournalBritish Medical Journal
BMJ is a partially open-access peer-reviewed medical journal. Originally called the British Medical Journal, the title was officially shortened to BMJ in 1988. The journal is published by the BMJ Group, a wholly owned subsidiary of the British Medical Association...
linking smoking to lung cancer and heart disease. In 1954 the British Doctors Study
British Doctors Study
The British Doctors Study is the generally accepted name of a prospective cohort study which ran from 1951 to 2001, and in 1956 provided convincing statistical proof that tobacco smoking increased the risk of lung cancer.-Context:...
confirmed the suggestion, based on which the government issued advice that smoking and lung cancer rates were related. In 1964 the United States Surgeon General
Surgeon General of the United States
The Surgeon General of the United States is the operational head of the Public Health Service Commissioned Corps and thus the leading spokesperson on matters of public health in the federal government...
's Report on Smoking and Health likewise began suggesting the relationship between smoking and cancer.
By the mid-1950s, individuals in the United States began to sue the companies responsible for manufacturing and marketing cigarettes for damages related to the effects of smoking. In the forty years through 1994, over 800 private claims were brought against tobacco companies in state courts across the country. The individuals asserted claims for negligent manufacture, negligent advertising, fraud, and violation of various state consumer protection statutes. The tobacco companies enjoyed great success in these lawsuits. Only two plaintiffs ever prevailed, and both of those decisions were reversed on appeal. As scientific evidence mounted in the 1980s, tobacco companies claimed contributory negligence
Contributory negligence
Contributory negligence in common-law jurisdictions is defense to a claim based on negligence, an action in tort. It applies to cases where a plaintiff/claimant has, through his own negligence, contributed to the harm he suffered...
as the adverse health effects were previously unknown or lacked substantial credibility.
State litigation
In the early to mid-1990s, more than 40 states commenced litigation against the tobacco industry, seeking monetary, equitable, and injunctive relief under various consumer-protection and antitrust laws. The first was declared in May 1994 by Mississippi Attorney General Mike Moore.The general theory of these lawsuits was that the cigarettes produced by the tobacco industry contributed to health problems among the population, which in turn resulted in significant costs to the states' public health systems. As Moore declared, "'[The] lawsuit is premised on a simple notion: you caused the health crisis; you pay for it.'" The States alleged a wide range of deceptive and fraudulent practices by the tobacco companies over decades of sales. Other states soon followed. The state lawsuits sought recovery for Medicaid and other public health expenses incurred in the treatment of smoking-induced illnesses. Importantly, the defenses of personal responsibility that were so effective for the tobacco industry in suits by private individuals were inapplicable to the causes of action alleged by the states.
Proposed "Global Settlement Agreement"
Faced with the prospect of defending multiple actions nationwide, the Majors sought a congressional remedy, primarily in the form of a national legislative settlement. In June 1997, the National Association of Attorneys General and the Majors jointly petitioned Congress for a global resolution. On June 20, 1997, Mississippi Attorney General Michael Moore and a group of other attorneys general announced the details of the settlement. The settlement included a payment by the companies of $365.5 billion, agreement to possible Food and Drug AdministrationFood and Drug Administration
The Food and Drug Administration is an agency of the United States Department of Health and Human Services, one of the United States federal executive departments...
regulation under certain circumstances, and stronger warning labels and restrictions on advertising. In exchange the companies would be freed from class-action suits and litigation costs would be capped.
This proposed congressional remedy (1997 National Settlement Proposal, a.k.a. the "June 20, 1997 Proposal") for the cigarette tobacco problem resembled the eventual Multistate Settlement Agreement, but with important differences. For example, although the congressional proposal would have earmarked 1/3 of all funds to combat teenage smoking, no such restrictions appear in the Multistate Settlement Agreement. In addition, the congressional proposal would have mandated Food & Drug Administration oversight and imposed federal advertising restrictions. It also would have granted immunity from state prosecutions; eliminated punitive damages in individual tort suits; and prohibited the use of class actions, or other joinder or aggregation devices without the defendant's consent, assuring that only individual actions could be brought. The congressional proposal called for payments to the States of $ 368.5 billion over twenty-five years. By contrast, assuming that the Majors would maintain their market share, the Multistate Settlement Agreement provides baseline payments of about $ 200 billion over twenty-five years. This baseline payment is subject to
The attorneys general did not have the authority to grant all this by themselves: the Global Settlement Agreement would require an act of Congress. Senator John McCain
John McCain
John Sidney McCain III is the senior United States Senator from Arizona. He was the Republican nominee for president in the 2008 United States election....
carried the bill, which was much more aggressive than even the global settlement. However, in the spring of 1998, Congress rejected both the proposed settlement and an alternative proposal submitted by Senator John McCain of Arizona.
While the proposed legislation was being discussed in Congress, some individual states began settling their litigation against the tobacco industry. On July 2, 1997, Mississippi became the first. Over the next year, Florida, Texas, and Minnesota followed, with the four states recovering a total of over $ 35 billion.
Four states (Mississippi, Florida, Texas and Minnesota) settled with the OPMs before the MSA. The OPMs pay those four states (the "previously settled states") 17 per cent of the MSA per-cigarette payment amount for each cigarette sold in any state. Thus, the OPMs pay the settling and previously settled states 104.55 per cent of the per-cigarette amount for each cigarette sold. In 2005, OPM payments totaled about 2.2 cents per cigarette or $ 4.40 per carton.
Adoption of the "Master Settlement Agreement"
In November 1998, the Attorneys General of the remaining 46 states, as well as of the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, and the Virgin Islands, entered into the MSA with the four largest manufacturers of cigarettes in the United States. (FloridaFlorida
Florida is a state in the southeastern United States, located on the nation's Atlantic and Gulf coasts. It is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the north by Alabama and Georgia and to the east by the Atlantic Ocean. With a population of 18,801,310 as measured by the 2010 census, it...
, Minnesota
Minnesota
Minnesota is a U.S. state located in the Midwestern United States. The twelfth largest state of the U.S., it is the twenty-first most populous, with 5.3 million residents. Minnesota was carved out of the eastern half of the Minnesota Territory and admitted to the Union as the thirty-second state...
, Texas
Texas
Texas is the second largest U.S. state by both area and population, and the largest state by area in the contiguous United States.The name, based on the Caddo word "Tejas" meaning "friends" or "allies", was applied by the Spanish to the Caddo themselves and to the region of their settlement in...
and Mississippi
Mississippi
Mississippi is a U.S. state located in the Southern United States. Jackson is the state capital and largest city. The name of the state derives from the Mississippi River, which flows along its western boundary, whose name comes from the Ojibwe word misi-ziibi...
had already reached individual agreements with the tobacco industry.) The four manufacturers--Philip Morris USA
Philip Morris USA
Philip Morris USA is the United States tobacco division of Altria Group, Inc. Philip Morris USA brands include Marlboro, Virginia Slims, Benson and Hedges, Merit, Parliament, Alpine, Basic, Cambridge, Bucks, Dave's, Chesterfield, Collector's Choice, Commander, English Ovals, Lark, L&M, Players and...
, R. J. Reynolds Tobacco Company, Brown & Williamson Tobacco Corp.
Brown & Williamson
Brown & Williamson was an American tobacco company and subsidiary of the giant British American Tobacco, that produced several popular cigarette brands. It became infamous as the focus of investigations for chemically enhancing the addictiveness of cigarettes...
, and Lorillard Tobacco Company
Lorillard Tobacco Company
Lorillard Tobacco Company is an American tobacco company marketing cigarettes under the brand names Newport, Maverick, Old Gold, Kent, True, Satin, and Max. Lorillard is a member of the National Black Chamber of Commerce.- History :...
--are referred to in the MSA as the Original Participating Manufacturers (OPMs).
This settlement process yielded two other national agreements:
Smokeless Tobacco Master Settlement Agreement
In the Smokeless Tobacco Master Settlement Agreement, which was executed at the same time as the MSA, the leading manufacturer in the smokeless tobaccoSmokeless tobacco
Smokeless Tobacco may refer to:* Dipping tobacco, a type of tobacco that is placed between the lower or upper lip and gums.* Chewing tobacco, a type of tobacco that is chewed.* Snuff, a type of tobacco that is insufflated or "snuffed" through the nose....
market (United States Tobacco Company, now known as U.S. Smokeless Tobacco Company
U.S. Smokeless Tobacco Company
U.S. Smokeless Tobacco Company manufactures dipping tobacco and is a subsidiary of Altria.Its corporate headquarters are located in Stamford, Connecticut, and it maintains factories in Clarksville and Nashville, Tennessee, Franklin Park, Illinois, and Hopkinsville, Kentucky.Copenhagen and Skoal...
) settled with the jurisdictions who signed the MSA, plus Minnesota and Mississippi.
Phase II settlement
The next year, the major cigarette manufacturers settled with the tobacco-growing states to compensate tobacco growers for losses they were expected to suffer due to the higher cigarette prices resulting from the earlier settlements. Called the "Phase II" settlement, this agreement created the National Tobacco Growers' Settlement Trust Fund. Tobacco growers and quota holders in the 14 states that grow flue-cured and burley tobacco used to manufacture cigarettes are eligible to receive payments from the trust fund. The states are Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Kentucky, Maryland, Missouri, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, and West Virginia.Subsequent signatories
At the time the MSA became effective, the OPMs collectively controlled approximately 97% of the domestic market for cigarettes. In addition to these "originally settling parties" (OSPs), the MSA permits other tobacco companies to join the settlement; a list of these "subsequently settling parties" (SSPs) is maintained by the National Association of Attorneys General. Since 1998, approximately 41 additional tobacco companies have joined the MSA. These companies, referred to as the Subsequent Participating Manufacturers (SPMs), are bound by the MSA's restrictions and must make payments to the settling states as set forth in the MSA. Collectively, the OPMs and the SPMs are referred to as the Participating Manufacturers (PMs). Any tobacco company choosing not to participate in the MSA is referred to as a Nonparticipating Manufacturer (NPM).As an incentive to join the MSA, the agreement provides that, if an SPM joined within ninety days following the MSA's "Execution Date," that SPM is exempt ("exempt SPM") from making annual payments to the settling states unless the SPM increases its share of the national cigarette market beyond its 1998 market share, or beyond 125% of that SPM's 1997 market share. If the exempt SPM's market share in a given year increases beyond those relevant historic limits, the MSA requires that the exempt SPM make annual payments to the settling states, similar to those made by the OPMs, but based only upon the SPM's sales representing the exempt SPM's market share increase.
SPMs joining the MSA after this ninety-day exempt period must, instead, make annual payments based upon all of the SPM's national cigarette sales for a given year. In addition to its annual payment obligations, in order [**9] to join the MSA now, a non-exempt SPM must, "within a reasonable time after signing the" MSA, pay the amount it would have been obligated to pay under the MSA during the time between the MSA's effective date and the date on which the SPM joined the agreement.
The addition of the Subsequent Participating Manufacturers meant that nearly all of the cigarette producers in the domestic market had signed the Multistate Settlement Agreement. Their addition was significant. The Majors allegedly feared that any cigarette manufacturer left out of a settlement (Non-Participating Manufacturers or NPMs) would be free to expand market share or could enter the market with lower prices, drastically altering the Majors' future profits and their ability to increase prices to pay for the settlement.
Summary of terms
The OPMs agreed to several broad categories of conditions:- to restrict their advertising, sponsorship, lobbying, and litigation activities, particularly as those activities were seen as targeting youth;
- to disband three specific "Tobacco-Related Organizations," and to restrict their creation and participation in trade associations;
- generally to make available to the public documents the OPMs had disclosed during the discovery phase of their litigation with the settling states;
- to create and fund the National Public Education Foundation, dedicated to reducing youth smokingYouth SmokingYouth smoking is an issue that affects countries worldwide. While not every culture views youth smoking as an issue that needs to be addressed, the U.S. has taken drastic measure in an attempt to reduce and eventually eliminate use of tobacco products among teens...
and preventing diseases associated with smoking. - to make annual payments to the settling states in perpetuity.
A section on enforcement gave jurisdiction to individual state courts to implement and enforce the term, and established a state enforcement fund ($50 million one-time payment). The participating manufacturers also paid the states' Attorney Fees.
Restrictions on youth targeting
Generally, the participating manufacturers agree not to "take any action, directly or indirectly, to target Youth within any Settling State in the advertising, promotion or marketing of Tobacco Products, or take any action the primary purpose of which is to initiate, maintain or increase the incidence of Youth smoking within any Settling State." (§III(a))Receipts by the states
States were to receive over $206 billion over 25 years:- Up-front payments - $12.742 billion.
- Annual Payments, beginning April 15, 2000 - $183.177 billion through 2025.
- Strategic Contribution Fund, 2008-2017 - $8.61 billion.
- National Foundation ($250 million over 10 years).
- Public Education Fund (at least $1.45 billion 2000-2003).
- State Enforcement Fund ($50 million, one-time payment).
- National Association of Attorneys General ($1.5 billion over next 10 years).
Payments by the Participating Manufacturers (PMs)
The amount of money that the PMs are required to annually contribute to the states varies according to several factors. All payments are based primarily on the number of cigarettes sold.For the OPMs, the payments are determined in accordance with their relative market share as of 1997. The payment amount of a particular OPM is also dictated by the "Volume Adjustment," which compares the number of cigarettes sold in each payment year to the number of cigarettes sold in 1997. If the number of cigarettes sold by an OPM in a given year is less than the number it sold in 1997, the Volume Adjustment allows that OPM to reduce its payment to the settling states. In other words, a reduction in the amount of cigarettes sold by the OPMs results in the settling states receiving less money.
The MSA sets forth specific amounts that the OPMs have agreed to pay the settling states each year. Those annual amounts are subject to a number of adjustments. The OPMs each pay a portion of the total annual payment according to each OPM's "Relative Market Share" for the preceding year.
For the SPMs, the payments are determined by their relative market share as compared to other SPMs. For the SPMs that joined the MSA within 90 days of its execution, the annual payments are determined by the number of cigarettes an SPM sells beyond the "grandfathered" volume—calculated as the higher of either the individual SPM's market share in 1998 (the year the MSA was executed) or 125% of the SPM's market share in 1997. If an SPM's sales volume or market share declines below the grandfathered amount, then it is not required to make any payments to the settling states. SPMs that failed to join the MSA within 90 days of its execution do not receive the benefit of any grandfathered amount.
Both exempt and non-exempt SPMs' annual payment obligations under the MSA are "calculated on the basis of the percentage of the four original participating manufacturers' total domestic market share represented by the SPM[s'] domestic market share . . . . In other words, the denominator in the calculation is the total OPM market share, not the total OPM and SPM market share." Furthermore, the parties agree that the amount the SPMs pay per cigarette is roughly the same as the per-cigarette amount that the OPMs pay under the MSA. To the extent the amount differs, the OPMs pay slightly more than the SPMs on a per cigarette basis.
Escrow account
The payments from all the PMs are deposited into an escrow account until disbursement to the settling states.The MSA includes a model escrow (or qualifying) act and provides strong incentives for settling states to adopt it. "[A] Qualifying Statute . . . is one that effectively and fully neutralizes the cost disadvantages that the Participating Manufacturers experience vis-a-vis Nonparticipating Manufacturers within the state."
The MSA encouraged settling states to adopt the model escrow act by providing that a settling state's allocated payment—that is, the portion of the annual MSA payment that a particular state receives in a given year—could be reduced by applying a non-participating manufacturers ("NPM") adjustment. That adjustment lowers a state's allocated share of the annual MSA payment if the OPMs lose market share to NPMs and if "a nationally recognized firm of economic consultants" determines that the MSA was "a significant factor contributing to the Market Share Loss for the year in question." The NPM adjustment does not apply to any state that has enacted and has in "full force and effect" a "qualifying" or model escrow statute. All settling states have enacted qualifying statutes.
The escrow statute is premised on the legislative finding that, in light of the MSA settling the states' claims against the major cigarette manufacturers, [i]t would be contrary to the policy of the State if tobacco product manufacturers who determine not to enter into such a settlement could use a resulting cost advantage to derive large, short-term profits in the years before liability may arise without ensuring that the State will have an eventual source of recovery from them if they are proven to have acted culpably. It is thus in the interest of the State to require that such manufacturers establish a reserve fund to guarantee a source of compensation and to prevent such manufacturers from deriving large, short-term profits and then becoming judgment-proof before liability may arise.
In light of that, the model escrow statute requires an NPM selling cigarettes in [*1122] a given state to do one of two things: 1) join the MSA, agreeing to "become a participating manufacturer (as that term is defined in section II(jj) of the [MSA]) and generally perform its financial obligations under the [MSA]," or 2) make similar annual payments into the state's escrow fund. An NPM's annual escrow payments in a particular state are calculated by multiplying a per-cigarette amount, established by the state's legislature and set forth in the statute, by the number of cigarettes the NPM sold in that state in the year for which payment is being made. The parties agree that this per-cigarette amount is roughly equivalent to the per-cigarette amount the MSA requires from OPMs and SPMs for sales which are not exempt. To the extent it differs, the OPMs pay slightly more than the SPMs, which pay slightly more than the NPMs.
The escrow statute specifically requires that the NPM place into a qualified escrow fund by April 15 of the year following the year in question the following amounts (as such amounts are adjusted for inflation)— 1999: $.0094241 per unit sold after the effective date of this act; 2000: $.0104712 per unit sold; for each of 2001 and 2002: $.0136125 per unit sold; for each of 2003 through 2006: $.0167539 per unit sold; for each of 2007 and each year thereafter: $.0188482 per unit sold.
Allocable share
Each state receives a payment equal to its "Allocable Share," a percentage of the funds held in escrow that has been agreed upon by the settling states and memorialized in the MSA. This "Allocable Share" (as measured by a percentage of the total funds in escrow) does not vary according to how many cigarettes are sold in a particular state in a given year.During the drafting of the MSA, the OPMs and the settling states contemplated that many of the smaller tobacco companies would choose not to join the MSA. This failure to join posed a potential problem for both the OPMs and the settling states. The OPMs worried that the NPMs, both because they would not be bound by the advertising and other restrictions in the MSA and because they would not be required to make payments to the settling states, would be able to charge lower prices for their cigarettes and thus increase their market share.
NPMs
Although the settling states' motivation was different from that of the OPMs, these states also were concerned about the effect of the tobacco companies that refused to join the MSA. The settling states worried that the NPMs would be able to regulate their sales so as to stay afloat financially while at the same time being effectively judgment-proof. As a result of these twin concerns, the OPMs and the settling states sought to have the MSA provide these other tobacco companies with incentives to join the agreement.One such incentive, called the NPM Adjustment, provides that the payments by the PMs to the settling states may be adjusted according to the "NPM Adjustment Percentage." According to this provision, if a nationally recognized firm of economic consultants determines that the PMs have lost market share as a result of compliance with the MSA, the PMs' required payments to the settling states will be reduced to account for the loss. The NPM Adjustment therefore gives the settling states an incentive to protect the market dominance of the PMs, because [*551] otherwise the settling states themselves will receive less funds.
In addition to the NPM Adjustment, the MSA contains other provisions to protect the PMs. Primary among these provisions is a requirement that the settling states adopt "complementary" legislation to effectuate the MSA, with a failure to do so resulting in substantial reductions in the yearly payments.
Allocable Share Amendment
The original escrow statutes provided that NPM payments would remain in escrow for 25 years, but authorized an early release of any escrow amount which was greater than the allocable share which that state would have received if the NPM had been an SPM. The originally enacted escrow statutes permitted an NPM to obtain a refund of the amount the NPM paid into the escrow fund to the extent that a tobacco product manufacturer establishes that the amount it was required to place into escrow in a particular year was greater than the State's allocable share of the total payments that such manufacturer would have been required to make in that year under the [MSA] . . . had it been a participating manufacturer. This "Allocable Share Release Provision" was intended to create substantial equivalence between the escrow obligation of NPMs under the escrow statutes and the amounts the NPMs would have paid if they had they joined the MSA.The settling states agreed to divide the annual MSA payment among themselves according to each state's preset allocable share, rather than according to the volume of sales made in a particular state in a given year. An NPM's payments into a state's escrow fund, on the other hand, were dependent on the number of cigarettes that the NPM sold in that state in a given year. Nevertheless, the originally enacted escrow statute based any refund of those escrowed funds payments on that state's allocable share of the national MSA payment. This refund provision, then, assumed an NPM would sell its cigarettes nationally.
If an NPM made the bulk of its sales in a few states, however, it could obtain a refund of those escrow payments in excess of what it would have paid each of those States had it been an SPM. For example, an NPM which made 50 per cent of its sales in Kansas (which has a relatively low allocable share) would obtain a release from its Kansas escrow fund of more than 49 per cent of its full escrow payment. In other words, the original allocable share release provision created an unintended loophole: it only operated as intended if the NPMs distributed their products nationally. In that circumstance, the NPMs' total escrow obligations to all states with similar tobacco statutes approximately totaled the payments those NPMs would have made under the MSA. If an NPM concentrated its sales in a few state with low allocable share percentages, however, the NPM could obtain a refund of much of its escrow payments. Because the Kansas percentage was so low—roughly 0.8 per cent—NPMs concentrated their sales within Kansas and a few other states to receive immediate escrow refunds from those states.
Rather than selling cigarettes nationally, several NPMs instead concentrated their sales in just a few states. Because the originally enacted escrow statute refunded escrow funds to the extent those funds exceeded each state's "allocable share" of the national MSA payment, NPMs were able to obtain refunds of most of the monies they had paid into a state's escrow fund. To illustrate, if an NPM only sold cigarettes in Kansas in 2006, the Kansas escrow statute would require that NPM to pay into the Kansas escrow fund $.0167539 for each cigarette the NPM sold in that state. Pursuant to the refund provision in the originally enacted Kansas escrow statute, however, the NPM could obtain a refund of all but .8336712% of those payments.
One commentator further explains that the calculations under the [originally enacted escrow] statutes were based on an assumption that a nonparticipating manufacturer sold cigarettes nationally. When this was the case, the statutes functioned as intended, permitting the NPM to obtain a refund of excess amounts placed in escrow in each state. However, when an NPM followed a regional sales strategy, as several did, the original escrow statutes allowed the NPM to obtain a refund that was much larger than intended.
To close this loophole, in late 2002, the National Association of Attorneys General ("NAAG") introduced the Allocable Share Release Repealer ("ASR Repealer"), a model statute which eliminated the ASR. In a memo dated September 12, 2003, Attorney General William H. Sorrell of Vermont, Chairman of the NAAG Tobacco Project, underscored the urgency of "all States taking steps to deal with the proliferation of NPM sales, including enactment of complementary legislation and allocable share legislation and consideration of other measures designed to serve the interests of the States in avoiding reductions in tobacco settlement payments." He stressed that "NPM sales anywhere in the country hurt all States," that NPM sales in any state reduce payments to every other State," and that "[a]ll States have an interest in reducing NPM sales in every State."
The "Allocable Share Amendment" ("Amendment") revised the originally enacted escrow statute's refund calculation to remove the reference to the enacting state's "allocable share" of the annual MSA payments. HN2The amended statute, therefore, now provides that an NPM will be entitled to a refund[t]o the extent that a tobacco product manufacturer establishes that the amount it was required to place into escrow, based on units sold in the state . . . in a particular year, was greater than the [MSA] payments, as determined pursuant to section IX(i) of that agreement including, after final determination of all adjustments, that such manufacturer would have been required to make based on such units sold had it been a participating manufacturer, the excess shall be released from escrow and revert back to such tobacco product manufacturer.
Thus, an NPM still has to pay annually into a state's escrow fund an amount calculated by multiplying the number of cigarettes the NPM sells in that state during the year in question by the same per-cigarette amount for that year as set forth in the state's escrow statute. The NPM can obtain a refund to the extent those escrowed funds are greater than the amount that the NPM would have had to pay under the MSA for that same year, based upon that same number of cigarettes sold.
Contraband statutes
By the middle of 2000, domestic NPMs and importers began to obtain greater market share. The NAAG noted that reductions in settlement payments which result from an overall reduction in cigarette consumption benefit the states because health care costs imposed by each cigarette exceed the settlement payments. On the other hand, when reductions in settlement payments occur because NPM sales displace PM sales, the states receive no benefits if the NPMs do not make escrow payments. Therefore, in late 2000, the NAAG drafted a model Contraband Statute to ensure that NPMs made escrow payments on cigarettes. See PX 116. The model Contraband Statute provides that excise tax stamping agents may not stamp cigarettes for sale in the state unless the manufacturer becomes a PM under the MSA or is an NPM which makes all escrow payments required by the Escrow Statute. The model Contraband Statute imposes a criminal penalty on wholesalers who sell cigarettes made by NPMs who are not duly registered in the state and making full escrow payments. By the middle of 2002, only seven settling states had enacted Contraband Statutes. As of today, 44 of the 46 settling states (including Kansas) have enacted these statutes. See K.S.A. § 50-6a04. The Kansas Attorney General [**16] is charged with enforcing the Escrow and Contraband Statutes.Criticism of the MSA
Some anti-smoking advocates, such as William Godshall, have criticized the MSA as being too lenient on the major tobacco companies. In a speech at the National Tobacco Control Conference, Godshall made claims that "[W]ith unprecedented future legal protection granted by the state A.G.'sState Attorney General
The state attorney general in each of the 50 U.S. states and territories is the chief legal advisor to the state government and the state's chief law enforcement officer. In some states, the attorney general serves as the head of a state department of justice, with responsibilities similar to those...
in exchange for money, it appears that the tobacco industry has emerged from the state lawsuits even more powerful."
An article in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute
National Cancer Institute
The National Cancer Institute is part of the National Institutes of Health , which is one of 11 agencies that are part of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The NCI coordinates the U.S...
described the MSA as an "opportunity lost to curb cigarette use", citing public health researchers' views that not enough of the MSA money was being spent on anti-smoking measures. Dr. Stephen A. Schroeder wrote in the New England Journal of Medicine
New England Journal of Medicine
The New England Journal of Medicine is an English-language peer-reviewed medical journal published by the Massachusetts Medical Society. It describes itself as the oldest continuously published medical journal in the world.-History:...
that "Although U.S. smoking rates are slowly declining, progress toward that end [decreasing smoking] would be faster if federal policymaking matched both the rigor of the scientific evidence against tobacco use and the resolve of antitobacco advocates." Cigarette
Cigarette
A cigarette is a small roll of finely cut tobacco leaves wrapped in a cylinder of thin paper for smoking. The cigarette is ignited at one end and allowed to smoulder; its smoke is inhaled from the other end, which is held in or to the mouth and in some cases a cigarette holder may be used as well...
consumption in the United States fell to a 50 year low in 2004.
Another criticism is the alleged favoritism shown to the major tobacco companies over smaller independent tobacco growers and sellers. Proponents of this argument claim that certain restrictions on pricing make it more difficult for small growers to compete with "Big Tobacco
Big Tobacco
Big Tobacco is a pejorative term often applied to the tobacco industry in general, or more particularly to the "big three" tobacco corporations in the United States: Philip Morris , Reynolds American and Lorillard...
". Twelve states have successfully fought against this argument in court during the last two years and the enforcement of the MSA continues throughout the United States in perpetuity.
Fellows within the Cato Institute
Cato Institute
The Cato Institute is a libertarian think tank headquartered in Washington, D.C. It was founded in 1977 by Edward H. Crane, who remains president and CEO, and Charles Koch, chairman of the board and chief executive officer of the conglomerate Koch Industries, Inc., the largest privately held...
, such as Robert Levy
Robert A. Levy
Robert A. Levy is the chairman of the libertarian Cato Institute and the organizer and financier behind District of Columbia v. Heller, the Supreme Court Case that established the Second Amendment as affirming an individual right to gun ownership. He is a Cato senior fellow and an author and pundit...
, assert that the lawsuit that brought on the tobacco settlement was instigated by a need to make beneficiary payments to Medicare
Medicare (United States)
Medicare is a social insurance program administered by the United States government, providing health insurance coverage to people who are aged 65 and over; to those who are under 65 and are permanently physically disabled or who have a congenital physical disability; or to those who meet other...
recipients. Following the passage of laws that eliminated the tobacco companies' ability to provide evidence in court for their defense, the tobacco companies were forced to settle. The big four tobacco companies agreed to pay the state governments several billion dollars but the government in turn was to protect the big four tobacco companies from competition. The Master Settlement Agreement, they argue, created an unconstitutional cartel arrangement that benefited both the government and big tobacco.
Robert Levy states:
For 40 years, tobacco companies had not been held liable for cigarette-related illnesses. Then, beginning in 1994, led by Florida, states across the country sued big tobacco to recover public outlays for medical expenses due to smoking. By changing the law to guarantee they would win in court, the states extorted a quarter-trillion-dollar settlement, which was passed along in higher cigarette prices. Basically, the tobacco companies had money; the states and their hired-gun attorneys wanted money; so the companies paid and the states collected. Then sick smokers got stuck with the bill."
The argument the Master Settlement Agreement created a cartel of the major U.S. cigarette makers, allowing them to charge "supracompetitive" prices for their product, was rejected by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit in 2007. The appellate court concluded that the Plaintiffs had not alleged sufficient facts to show that the MSA and two related state laws violated the federal Sherman Act.
Securitization
In the ten years following the settlement, many state and local governments have opted to sell so-called "tobacco bonds." They are a form of securitizationSecuritization
Securitization is the financial practice of pooling various types of contractual debt such as residential mortgages, commercial mortgages, auto loans or credit card debt obligations and selling said consolidated debt as bonds, pass-through securities, or Collateralized mortgage obligation , to...
. In many cases the bonds permit state and local governments to transfer the risk of declines in future master settlement agreement payments to bondholders. In some cases, however, the bonds are backed by secondary pledges of state or local revenues, which creates what some see as a perverse incentive
Perverse incentive
A perverse incentive is an incentive that has an unintended and undesirable result which is contrary to the interests of the incentive makers. Perverse incentives are a type of unintended consequences.- Examples :...
to support the tobacco industry, on whom they are now dependent for future payments against this debt.
Individual state settlements
There is technically a distinct MSA signed separately with each state. While these MSAs are identical, the states have had to enact enabling legislation which differs from state to state. Furthermore, each state's court system is entitled to create its own jurisdictional interpretations of the MSA text. As a result, legal understanding of the MSA differ from state to state.MSA by state
Documents relating to the initial lawsuits filed by each individual state are available at the UCSF website.library.ucsf.edu- AlabamaTobacco MSA (Alabama)The Tobacco MSA with Alabama is the particular version of the Tobacco MSA that was signed by Alabama, was enabled by means of legislation of Alabama, and has been interpreted since then in Alabama courts....
- Alaska
- Arizona
- Arkansas
- California
- Colorado
- Connecticut
- Delaware
- Florida
- Georgia
- HawaiiTobacco MSA (Hawaii)The Tobacco MSA with Hawaii is the particular version of the Tobacco MSA that was signed by Hawaii, was enabled by means of legislation of Hawaii, and has been interpreted since then in Hawaii state courts....
- Idaho
- Illinois
- Indiana
- Iowa
- Kansas
- Kentucky
- Louisiana
- Maine
- Maryland
- Massachusetts
- Michigan
- Minnesota
- Mississippi
- Missouri
- Montana
- Nebraska
- Nevada
- New Hampshire
- New Jersey
- New Mexico
- New YorkTobacco MSA (New York)The Tobacco MSA with New York is the particular version of the Tobacco MSA that was signed in New York City was enabled by means of legislation of New York State, and has been interpreted since then in New York State courts.-Master settlement agreement:...
- North Carolina
- North Dakota
- Ohio
- Oklahoma
- Oregon
- Pennsylvania
- Rhode Island
- South Carolina
- South Dakota
- Tennessee
- Texas
- Utah
- Vermont
- Virginia
- Washington
- West Virginia
- Wisconsin
- Wyoming
External links
- Text of the Master Settlement Agreement
- Tobaccodocuments.org Database of documents released under the terms of the MSA.
- CRS Report for Congress, "Tobacco Master Settlement Agreement (1998): Overview, Implementation by States, and Congressional Issues" (1999) [this is in the public domain, and may be copied verbatim into the article with citations.]