For years big tobacco has struggled to elude the ever-present threat of smokers' lawsuits alleging that cigarette Markers covered up the health risks of an addictive product that kills 440,000 people every year. Now four tobacco titans face a new and perhaps more lethal threat: antitrust litigation. The new risk grows out of a federal lawsuit filed by two tiny tobacco importers challenging the sweeping settlement that the four biggest makers―Altria, R.J. Reynolds, Brown & Williamson and Lorillard―signed with the nation's state attorneys general in 1998. The settlement requires the balky behemoths to pay about $200 billion over 25 years to cover the states' costs of health care for smokers. But it also enlists the states to support a big-brand cartel and keeps prices high by slapping fees on small rivals not covered by the settlement.
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