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In the US, tobacco litigation began in 1954 but elsewhere it’s a relatively recent phenomenon.
In part, this is because the US legal system tends to encourage litigation. Lawyers in the US often work for contingency fees, for example. This means that their fees are dependent (or “contingent”) on the outcome of the case. If the lawyers are successful, they receive a large share of the settlement or trial award; if they’re not, the plaintiff pays no legal fees.
Another aspect of the US system is that plaintiffs’ lawyers often seek punitive damages. Meant to punish the defendant and to discourage others from similar behaviour, they can amount to many millions of dollars.
Generally speaking, neither contingency fees nor punitive damages are common in other countries; their cultures are less litigious; and far fewer cases against tobacco companies have been filed.
"The first case outside the US was brought in Australia in 1986, the first European case in Finland in 1988."
The first case outside the US was brought in Australia in 1986, the first European case in Finland in 1988. Neither of them involved our company or affiliates; and in both cases the courts decided in favour of the cigarette companies involved.
Since then the number of cases outside the US has gradually risen, and to date the industry has successfully defended cases in over twenty countries.
Please click the links below for more about those cases.
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Individual cases
Class actions
Health care cost recovery cases
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Individual cases
Most tobacco lawsuits outside the US have been individual cases. In such cases a smoker sues one or more cigarette companies for an illness that he or she claims was caused by smoking. Courts in many different countries have dismissed most of those cases.
We’ve successfully defended individual cases in countries as diverse as Australia, Argentina, Brazil, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Italy, Kazakhstan, the Philippines, Poland and Turkey. Other cigarette companies have had similar results.
In a handful of cases first level courts found against cigarette companies, but those decisions were reversed in all instances where higher courts considered the cases later on. Brazil and Italy are the only countries where adverse decisions have not yet been reversed by a higher court.
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Class actions
In class, or consolidated, actions groups of people with injuries allegedly caused by one or more cigarette companies try to combine their claims into a single case. In some countries consumer organizations file these types of cases on behalf of their members.
Currently there are class actions pending in three countries: Brazil, Canada and Israel. Previous attempts to bring such claims in Brazil, Canada, Nigeria, Spain and the United Kingdom have failed.
The only adverse decision against a subsidiary of Philip Morris International, in a consumer class action in Brazil, is on appeal.
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Health care cost recovery cases
In health care cost recovery cases governments, insurance companies or health care providers seek to recover the costs of providing medical care to people who they claim have become sick because they smoked.
Such suits have been brought in Canada, France, Israel, Spain and the Marshall Islands. They've been dismissed in France, Israel, Spain and the Marshall Islands, with the dismissals in France and Spain affirmed and the dismissal in Israel still pending on appeal.
In addition, US plaintiffs’ attorneys persuaded some foreign countries to file health care cost recovery cases in US courts. Nearly all of those cases have been dismissed.
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