New York City anti-smoking symbols portraying a decaying tooth, unhealthy lungs and a spoiled brain breach cigarette sellers' free speech and should be taken out, tobacco companies and vendors said in a lawsuit.

Philip Morris USA, Lorillard Tobacco Company, and R. J. Reynolds Tobacco Co., in addition to two other main retail trade groups and two convenience stores, asserted in the Manhattan federal court suit that the symbols infringe the sellers' rights by inflicting the signs on them.

The suit, filed on Wednesday and made available to journalists on Thursday, said, "The Government may not force private parties to carry messages beyond purely uncontroversial factual statements that are designed to prevent consumer deception".

The three diverse signs created by the city's Health Department and needed as of last December, illustratively depict the injurious outcomes that smoking can have on the body.

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