Master Settlement Agreement

Under the Master Settlement Agreement, seven tobacco companies agreed to change the way they market tobacco products and to pay the states an estimated $206 billion. The tobacco companies also agreed to finance a $1.5 billion anti-smoking campaign, open previously secret industry documents, and disband industry trade groups which Attorneys General maintain conspired to conceal damaging research from the public.

• Tobacco Master Settlement Agreement, pdf
• Exhibits A-U, pdf
• Consent Decree, pdf
• Memorandum of Understanding, pdf
• Agreement Regarding Interpretation of Memorandum of Understanding, pdf
• Escrow Agreement, pdf
• Model Release and Discharge of Claims, pdf
• Appendix E-M, pdf

Master Settlement Agreement Fact Sheet

The Master Settlement Agreement (MSA) imposes major restrictions on tobacco company marketing practices and prohibits advertising aimed at youth. The MSA restricts the participating tobacco companies in the following ways:

• Prohibits direct or indirect targeting of youth in advertising, marketing and promotions.
• Prohibits brand name sponsorship of concerts, sports events, events with an intended audience having a significant percentage of youth and events with paid participants who are youth.
• Prohibits access by youth to free samples of tobacco products.
• Prohibits payments for placement of tobacco products in the media.
• Prohibits outdoor advertising of tobacco products.
• Prohibits transit ads, on or in public or private vehicles.
• Prohibits using cartoons to advertise tobacco products.
• Prohibits tobacco brand-name merchandise.

The Attorney General represented the State of California in the tobacco litigation. The Attorney General established the first full-time state tobacco enforcement unit in the country and provided consumers with a complaint line, 916-565-6486, for reporting suspected violations of the MSA. Inquiries and reports of suspected violations can also be mailed to the:

Tobacco Litigation and Enforcement Section
P.O. Box 944255
Sacramento, CA 94244-2550.

Settlement Payments to Counties and Cities

[PDF 141 kb / 7 pg]

1. All projections are based on Cigarette Consumption Estimates provided by Global Insight as of July 2006.
2. Projections for 2007 and 2018-2045 include “annual payments” only. Annual payments continue in perpetuity.
3. Projections for 2008-2017 include both “annual payments” and payments from the “Strategic Contribution Fund.” The $8 billion Strategic Contribution Fund was established in the MSA to acknowledge that some states contributed more time and resources to achieving the historic settlement of the states’ litigation against the tobacco industry. The chart below breaks out Strategic Contribution Fund amounts expected in April 2008 through 2017.

Projected Strategic Contribution Fund Payments, 2008-2017 [PDF 43 kb / 1 pg]

Smokeless Tobacco Master Settlement Agreement

The Smokeless Master Settlement Agreement details the financial settlement and restrictions smokeless tobacco products, including chewing tobacco.

• Smokeless Tobacco Settlement Agreement, pdf
• Exhibits A-G, pdf
• Consent Decree, pdf