Quebec sentences three tobacco companies to a record fine – Le Figaro

Imperial Tobacco, Rothmans Benson & amp; Hedges and Japan Tobacco International will pay 11 billion euros in damages to tens of thousands of victims.

Three cigarette manufacturers were sentenced Monday to Québec to pay 15.5 billion dollars (11.3 billion euros) in damages to tens of thousands of Quebec victims of tobacco, a record in Canada.

sentenced three multinationals, Imperial Tobacco, Rothmans Benson & amp; Hedges and Japan Tobacco International, immediately questioned the judge’s verdict Brian Riordan of the Superior Court of Quebec. The court had been seized as part of two class actions since 1998 and representing nearly 1.02 million Quebecers some smoked since the 1960s The trial partnership did was open in March 2012.

The civil party lawyers accused the tobacco companies have transmitted “false information” about their products and to have deliberately chosen “not to use tobacco parties” low nicotine content in order to maintain dependence of smokers. Riordan J. has identified four main charges against the three multinational companies, including breaches of the “general duty not to cause harm to others” and duty “to inform its customers of the risks and dangers of its products” .

“A great victory for the fight against smoking, never seen in Canada”

“In the approximately fifty years of the period covered by the class action, and during the seventeen years that followed, companies have made billions of dollars at the expense of the lungs, throats and well-being of their customers, “said the River Magistrate in a judgment of 276 pages. The judge also ordered the tobacco companies to commence the payment of damages and interest that the case be appealed or not. The three companies will pay well over a billion dollars by the end of July.

The Quebec Council on Tobacco and Health, originally one of two remedies, described the judgment “great victory for the fight against smoking.” The liability of tobacco has been recognized for “emphysema, lung cancer or throat cancer” of Quebec smokers or ex-smokers, “unheard of in Canada,” said the organization, civil party. “This judgment is launching a powerful message that no industry is not above the law,” abounded Me Bruce Johnston, representing the victims. “The time when we tolerate that a company chooses its profits with impunity at the expense of the health of its customers are gone,” said he said.

Of the $ 15.5 billion in damages, the Imperial Tobacco Group pays the largest part with 10.5 billion. Convicted firms immediately announced their intention to seize the Belle Province Court of Appeal. “Adults consumers and governments were aware of the risks associated with smoking for decades,” has replicated the Canadian branch of Imperial Tobacco, saying in a statement that the ruling “seeks to provide adult consumers responsibility for their actions. ” “We believe that there are strong grounds to appeal this ruling,” said Tamara Gitto, vice president of Imperial Tobacco Canada.

Japan Tobacco International (JTI), ” the evidence presented at trial do not support the conclusions reached by the Court. ” “Since the 1950s, Canadians were very aware of the risks posed to health by smoking,” stressed JTI, noting that health warnings printed on cigarette packs for over 40 years. The new legal sequence that opens with the tobacco of appeal could take several years and go up to the Supreme Court.