"The following 'Phase 1 website preamble' will appear on each of the Covered Websites, with the Defendant that operates the website being listed first: 'A Federal Court has ruled that Altria, R.J. Reynolds Tobacco, Lorillard, and Philip Morris USA deliberately deceived the American public and has ordered those companies to make these statements. Here is the truth:
* Health effects of smoking
* Addictiveness of smoking and nicotine
* Falsely selling and advertising low-tar and light cigarettes as less harmful than regular cigarettes
* Designing cigarettes to enhance the delivery of nicotine
* Health effects of secondhand smoke
* Para informacion en espanol, clic aqul.'"
In 1999, the United States filed a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia against the major cigarette manufacturers and related trade organizations alleging that defendants, while acting as an enterprise, fraudulently misled American consumers for decades about the risks and dangers of cigarette smoking and exposure to secondhand smoke in violation of the Racketeer Influenced Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO). In 2006, the court found that defendants violated civil provisions of RICO and that there was a reasonable likelihood that defendants would continue to violate RICO in the future. On appeal, the district court’s findings were upheld, in part, vacated, in part, and remanded, in part, to the district court. After the U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear appeals from both sides in the case in June 2010, the district court began to implement the 2006 final order.
In this Order, the District Court approved a revised proposal by the parties on how the corrective statements would be displayed in four different media (television, websites, newspapers, and cigarette packaging).