Politics

Court Re-Ignites Lawsuit Against Big Tobacco Over Fraudulent Ads

By Anne Landman

California's Supreme court has given the go-ahead to consumers to sue corporations over fraudulent advertising that they feel misled them into buying faulty or harmful products. In a 4-3 decision, judges rejected arguments by businesses that would have blocked class action suits for false advertising by requiring that each individual plaintiff demonstrate he or she had seen and relied upon an allegedly deceptive ad. The ruling reinstated a massive class-action suit against the tobacco industry in which plaintiffs accused tobacco companies of making misleading claims about the health risks and addictiveness of smoking. Breaking from past legal strategy, where plaintiffs sought compensation for physical illnesses incurred from smoking, in this case consumers seek only to recoup money they spent on cigarettes as a result of misleading advertising campaigns. Altria Group, the parent company of Philip Morris, tried unsuccessfully to block the lawsuit, which also names seven other tobacco companies as defendants. The ruling on the California case came just before another major blow to the industry: a May 22 decision by a federal appeals court to uphold a landmark 2006 Federal court ruling convicting tobacco companies of lying to the public for decades about the hazards of cigarette smoking.

Full post as published by PR Watch on May 26, 2009 (boomark / email).