Gathering limited liability

In return for this limited liability, US tobacco manufacturers agreed to an extensive package of measures, principally financial, with annual payments into a compensatory fund for settling future personal claims against liability and funding for major anti-smoking campaigns and health service programmes. The agreement, brokered by industry representatives, state attorney generals and public health representatives, involves a degree of new regulation on the industry, including advertising restrictions, increased health warnings on cigarette packets and new federal regulation - through the Food and Drug Administration - of nicotine levels in tobacco, possibly leading to a total ban on nicotine by 2009.

Essentially the agreement afforded the tobacco industry a release from the growing public sentiment and movement towards mass litigation of smokers suing tobacco manufacturers. While the sums agreed are huge, in return the tobacco manufacturers were freed from a number of legal liabilities, the first to acknowledge and apologize for past misconduct, and the second, to disclose secret documents from inside the industry.