Bans on certain types of advertising. Allowance for minimum pricing requirements. They seem to be going against them. This is where you would be wrong. It may surprise you to find out that of all the hundreds of different cigarette brands there are essentially only 5 manufacturers.
Regulation is expensive.
Big business welcomes regulation, it's expensive and it keeps the little guys out. That's a recipe for Chapter 13 if I ever saw one. As far as the billions of dollars is concerned, it is being paid out over 20 years. They immediately raised cigarette prices by fifty cents a pack and continue to increase the price every year. Smokers are the ones paying the settlement, not the tobacco companies.