
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SATURDAY, March 3, 1990                   TAG: 9003032647
SECTION: BUSINESS                    PAGE: B3   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Short

LIGGETT WINS $149 MILLION SUIT

Liggett Group Inc. on Friday won a record $148.8 million antitrust verdict charging that Brown & Williamson Tobacco Corp. used predatory-pricing tactics to try to wipe out competition from low-cost generic cigarettes.

The verdict from a Greensboro, N.C., federal jury followed a 105-day trial. Durham, N.C.-based Liggett, the smallest of the six major U.S. tobacco companies, presented dramatic evidence of an alleged plot to preserve the industry's high-price structure after Liggett introduced generic cigarettes in 1980 that were priced lower because they weren't advertised.

In one internal document from Brown & Williamson, a subsidiary of the British conglomerate BAT Industries, an official of the Louisville cigarette company wrote, "Someone must put a lid on (Liggett)."

Antitrust experts and Liggett attorneys said the verdict was the largest ever under the federal Robinson-Patman Act, a fair-competition law that prohibits pricing below cost to wipe out competitors.

Brown & Williamson, the third-largest U.S. tobacco company, with an 11.4 percent market share, said it would appeal the verdict. - Newsday

by CNB