After five years of legal wrangling, America‘s largest cigarette-makers are today meeting federal lawyers in court for the trial phase of the government’s record $280bn (€229.7bn) civil racketeering suit against the tobacco industry.

The US government may try to block RJ Reynolds Tobacco Holdings proposed $3 billion acquisition of Brown & Williamson Tobacco, after antitrust enforcers concluded the combination would stifle competition, analysts said.

A United States federal judge today fined a British tobacco company $25,000-a-day (€21,180) for failing to comply with an earlier court order.