Tobacco Company Case Study
The tobacco industry has been at the forefront of foundational American industries for centuries.
Some of the first instances of slave labour in the United States were directly linked to tobacco
plantations. The success of the industry equated to significant profits, making it one of the largest
earners to date (Hannah, 2006). Because of the hundreds of millions made across their storied
tenures, the largest tobacco companies in the U.S. exhibited unfair and ethical strangleholds on
their competitors. This led to the U.S. Government filing a lawsuit against three of the largest
tobacco companies; American Tobacco, Reynolds and Liggett.
The “Big Three” as they are called are tobacco companies that held the largest shares in the
industry in the 1940s. According to the author Wallace Murchison (1947), the American Tobacco
Case of 1946 was an example of landmark litigation to protect consumers and competition in the
