If you’ve noticed new signs near tobacco displays in local stores recently, these “corrective statements” are a long-awaited outcome of a 2006 federal court ruling that found tobacco companies misled customers about the harm and addictiveness of smoking.

The signs are required to be posted at about 200,000 retail locations nationwide that have merchandising agreements with the tobacco companies involved in the litigation.  (Another 100,000 tobacco retailers do not have such agreements and aren’t required to post the signs.) Retailers had until Oct. 1 to post the signs, which must stay up for 21 months.