Sec. 161.602. DEFINITIONS. In this subchapter:

(1) "Brand family" means each style of cigarettes or cigarette tobacco products sold under the same trademark. The term includes any style of cigarettes or cigarette tobacco products that have a brand name, trademark, logo, symbol, motto, selling message, recognizable pattern of colors, or other indication of product identification that is identical to, similar to, or identifiable with a previously known brand of cigarettes or cigarette tobacco products.

(2) "Cigarette" means a roll for smoking that is:

(A) made of tobacco or tobacco mixed with another ingredient and wrapped or covered with a material other than tobacco; and

(B) not a cigar.

(3) "Cigarette tobacco product" means roll-your-own tobacco or tobacco that, because of the tobacco's appearance, type, packaging, or labeling, is suitable for use in making cigarettes and is likely to be offered to or purchased by a consumer for that purpose.

(4) "Credit amendment" means an amendment to the master settlement agreement that offers a credit to subsequent participating manufacturers for fees paid under this subchapter with respect to their products in a form agreed on by settling states, as defined in the master settlement agreement, with aggregate allocable shares, as defined in the master settlement agreement, equal to at least 99.937049 percent; by the original participating manufacturers, as defined in the master settlement agreement; and by subsequent participating manufacturers whose aggregate market share, expressed as a percentage of the total number of individual cigarettes sold in the United States, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico during the calendar year at issue, as measured by excise taxes collected by the federal government, and in the case of cigarettes sold in Puerto Rico, by arbitrios de cigarillos collected by the Puerto Rico taxing authority, is greater than 2.5 percent. For purposes of the calculation of subsequent participating manufacturer market share under this subchapter, 0.09 ounces of roll-your-own tobacco constitutes one cigarette.

(5) "Distributor" has the meaning assigned by Section 154.001 or 155.001, Tax Code, as appropriate.

(6) "Fee" or "monthly fee" means the fee imposed under Section 161.603.

(7) "Manufacturer" means a person that manufactures, fabricates, or assembles cigarettes or cigarette tobacco products, or causes or arranges for the manufacture, fabrication, or assembly of cigarettes or cigarette tobacco products for sale or distribution. For purposes of this subchapter, the term includes a person that is the first importer into the United States of cigarettes or cigarette tobacco products manufactured, fabricated, or assembled outside the United States.

(8) "Master settlement agreement" means the settlement agreement entered into on November 23, 1998, by 46 states and leading United States tobacco manufacturers, as amended as of September 1, 2013.

(9) "Non-settling manufacturer" means a manufacturer of cigarettes or cigarette tobacco products that did not sign a tobacco settlement agreement described by Subdivision (15).

(10) "Non-settling manufacturer cigarettes" means cigarettes of a non-settling manufacturer.

(11) "Non-settling manufacturer cigarette tobacco products" means cigarette tobacco products of a non-settling manufacturer.

(12) "Released claim" means:

(A) "released claims" as that term is defined in the agreement described by Subdivision (15)(A); and

(B) all claims encompassed in Paragraph 7 of the agreement described by Subdivision (15)(B).

(13) "Settling manufacturer" means a manufacturer of cigarettes or cigarette tobacco products that signed a tobacco settlement agreement described by Subdivision (15).

(14) "Subsequent participating manufacturer" has the same meaning provided for that term in the master settlement agreement, except that the term excludes any settling manufacturer under the tobacco settlement agreement described by Subdivision (15)(B). A manufacturer may not be treated as a subsequent participating manufacturer for purposes of Section 161.604(c) unless it has provided to the comptroller notice and proof, in the form and manner the comptroller may prescribe, that it is a subsequent participating manufacturer.

(15) "Tobacco settlement agreement" means either:

(A) the Comprehensive Settlement Agreement and Release filed on January 16, 1998, in the United States District Court, Eastern District of Texas, in the case styled The State of Texas v. The American Tobacco Co., et al., No. 5-96CV-91, and all subsequent amendments; or

(B) the settlement agreement entered into on March 20, 1997, regarding the matter described in Paragraph (A), but only as to companies that signed that agreement on that date.

Added by Acts 2013, 83rd Leg., R.S., Ch. 1305 (H.B. 3536), Sec. 1, eff. September 1, 2013.