Marlboro man coughs up £670m

The maker of Marlboro cigarettes agreed today to pay up to £670m (€1bn) to help the European Union combat smuggling and fakes, ending years of legal wrangling over an illegal trade that costs both sides hundreds of millions of pounds annually.

Philip Morris International and the EU’s head office hailed the deal, the outlines of which were revealed last April, as a “major step forward in the battle against the common enemy of counterfeit and contraband cigarettes”.