As used in this part:
(1)
- (A) "Cigarette" means any tobacco product as defined in Arkansas Code § 26-57-260(4), including cigarillos (little cigars in brown paper sold in packs of ten (10) or twenty (20)).
(B) The term "cigarette" does not include:
- (i) Cigars;
- (ii) Chewing tobacco;
- (iii) Snuff; or
- (iv) Tobacco manufactured and marketed exclusively for use in pipes;
(2)
- (A) "Master Settlement Agreement" means the settlement agreement entered into on November 23, 1998, between forty-six (46) states (including Arkansas) and several major cigarette manufacturers.
- (B) The Master Settlement Agreement (MSA) settles the various lawsuits filed by the states against the major cigarette manufacturers.
- (C) Arkansas’s lawsuit was filed with the Pulaski County Chancery Court, Sixth Division, case number IJ97-2982.
(D)
- (i) The MSA contains both economic and noneconomic provisions.
- (ii) Under the noneconomic terms, the cigarette manufacturers agree to various restrictions on their advertising and marketing practices as well as certain other aspects of their corporate behavior.
- (iii) Under the economic terms, the cigarette manufacturers agree to pay the states over two hundred billion dollars ($200,000,000,000) between 1998 and 2025.
- (E) The State of Arkansas’s share will be approximately one billion seven hundred million dollars ($1,700,000,000);
(3)
- (A) "Nonparticipating manufacturer" means any tobacco product manufacturer as defined in Arkansas Code § 26-57-260(9) that is not included in nor bound by the Master Settlement Agreement.
- (B) If cigarettes manufactured by a manufacturer in a foreign country are sold in Arkansas and the manufacturer did not intend for its cigarettes to be sold in the United States, responsibility for making the escrow payment will fall upon the first importer of such cigarettes into the United States;
- (4) "Participating manufacturer" means any tobacco product manufacturer as defined in Arkansas Code § 26-57-260(9) that is included in and bound by the Master Settlement Agreement; and
(5) "Units sold" means all cigarettes and roll-your-own tobacco:
- (A) Required by Arkansas law to have an Arkansas tobacco excise tax stamp affixed to the package containing such cigarettes or tobacco; and
(B) Sold by a manufacturer or wholesaler for retail sale within Arkansas either:
- (i) Directly to consumers in Arkansas; or
- (ii) Through tobacco product retail businesses located within Arkansas and licensed by the Arkansas Tobacco Control Board.