US court rejects cigarette case
	Tuesday, 28 November 2006 :The US Supreme Court has backed a 2005 Illinois court ruling that threw out a $10.1bn (£5.2bn) damages claim against US tobacco giant Philip Morris. Lawyers had appealed against the ruling which said the firm had not misled people into thinking "light" cigarettes were less harmful than other versions. The Supreme Court agreed that since the term light had been agreed by a federal body, Philip Morris was not liable. US tobacco firms face a number of other lawsuits over their low tar products. The verdict of the US Supreme Court was widely expected. "I think it was pretty much a foregone conclusion," said Gregg Warren, an analyst at Morningstar. When US tobacco firms first introduced light, or low tar, cigarettes in the 1970s, such phrases were given the go-ahead by the Federal Trade Commission. The Illinois lawsuit against Philip Morris was a class action case brought on behalf of 1.1 million smokers in the state.