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By granting relative protection from future legal action, by restricting cigarette advertising, and by allowing its signatory companies to fix prices, the agreement provides a virtual monopoly to the companies that have signed the MSA. Small independent manufacturers dare not enter or compete in the business, leaving big tobacco to become even bigger tobacco. The influx of annual settlement payments from cigarette makers creates “client-states” that depend on this money to fund escalating medical costs. Indeed, the real cost of the agreement is borne by addicted smokers who now pay more for
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