Mass. Attorney General’s Office reaches $600 million settlement with major tobacco manufacturers

The Massachusetts Attorney General’s Office reached a $600 million settlement with major tobacco manufacturers on Monday, the largest resolution from the office in recent history, Attorney General Andrea Joy Campbell announced.

“The country’s major tobacco manufacturers have pushed smoking products to young people for decades,” Campbell said in a statement. “This settlement is evidence of our ongoing commitment to hold these companies accountable for their actions that caused irreparable harm to public health and safety.”

The deal involved previously disputed funds from a 1998 Master Settlement Agreement in which major tobacco companies agreed to stop marketing their products to children, the statement said, and pay states billions of dollars to compensate for medical expenses attributed to smoking.

The $600 million will be paid to the Commonwealth’s general fund this fiscal year, and the companies will make additional payments each year thereafter, the statement said.

Lynsie Ranker, assistant professor of Community Health Sciences at Boston University, said the tobacco industry has a “long history” of marketing their products to children.

“Young people deserve the chance to grow up without the influence of tobacco manufacturers, and to live a life free from tobacco and nicotine addiction,” she told Boston.com.

The deal follows last year’s $462 million multistate settlement against electronic cigarette company JUUL, $41 million of which went to Massachusetts.

Since the 1998 MSA deal, Massachusetts has received annual payments of hundreds of millions of dollars from the major tobacco companies, but on a yearly basis, certain manufacturers withheld funds, putting hundreds of millions of dollars in dispute, the AG’s office said.

The current settlement resolves seven of the past annual disputes and fast-tracks the resolution of others, and in addition to the $600 million payment, requires that the companies withhold less money in future years, meaning that Massachusetts will receive higher annual payments going forward, according to the statement.

“I am happy to see that the AG and the Commonwealth are continuing to hold tobacco manufacturers accountable for their actions,” Ranker said. “I hope they will continue to push for stronger protections for kids, particularly when it comes to limiting the reach of online marketing.”