Litigation in tobacco control: past, present and future

Abstract

This paper reviews progress in tobacco litigation since Tobacco Control’s founding 30 years ago, with a focus on cases which are ongoing or recently decided. Litigation in tobacco control falls into several classes: legal challenges brought by the tobacco industry to block implementation of tobacco control measures, public interest litigation brought by civil society to push for higher standards of implementation of tobacco control measures and liability litigation by governments and individuals to hold the tobacco industry accountable for the harm it causes. In each class of cases, there are a number of major case studies which show the importance of international frameworks, including most significantly the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, to tobacco litigation.

Protecting minors from tobacco products: public interest litigation enables enforcement in China

“…PIL broadly refers to litigation used to enhance social and legal change and can be a tool to promote enforcement of tobacco control laws and standards 5 6. PIL also aligns with recommendations put forward in Article 19 of the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC), which states that parties to the FCTC should ‘consider taking legislative action or promoting their existing laws, where necessary, to deal with criminal and civil liability’ 7…”

Big tobacco's dirty tricks: Seven key tactics of the tobacco industry

“…The tobacco industry has used litigation to contest all types of tobacco control measures, including tax policies, anti-tobacco advertisements, smoking bans, plain packaging, and even the formation of tobacco control authorities [64][65][66][67][68] . A common argument is that cigarettes are legal products, so punitive control measures breach international trade and intellectual property law 69 .…”

Commercial Advertising of Alcohol: Using Law to Challenge Public Health Regulation

“…This is a strategy which has been used extensively in respect of other public health regulation, including tobacco control. 12 It is, of course, important that governments act lawfully in carrying out their public health functions. However, supervising government exercises of power in the public interest is arguably not the purpose of industry litigation and legal claims against public health policy.…”