Brazilian Court Rejects Main Class Action Filed Against Cigarette Manufacturers

The judge of the 19th Civil Court of Sao Paulo denied the claims for indemnification brought by the Association for the Defence of the Health of Smokers in a class action suit filed against cigarette manufacturers Souza Cruz and Philip Morris Brasil that, according to the plaintiff, was evaluated at more than R$ 30 billion (US$ 18.4 billion). This was the first lawsuit seeking indemnification for damages attributed to smoking cigarettes filed in the country. In the suit, filed in 1995, ADESF sought indemnification for all the "smoking consumers" it alleged to represent, based on the argument that manufacturers' advertising had been misleading and abusive. At one point in the process, the association managed to receive a favourable decision from a lower court that, however, had been rendered as an advance ruling, with defendants not being given the opportunity to produce the evidence they had requested. In 2008, the Court of Appeals of Sao Paulo recognized that defence had been curtailed and reversed the decision, stating that conviction without proof violates the constitutional right of full legal defence.