Philip Morris USA and other cigar makers asked for an appeal concerning last year’s lawsuit over tobacco companies marketing of ‘light’ cigarettes. Altria Group Inc., owner of Philip Morris together with other companies made the appeal last Tuesday saying that a federal judge made a mistake of granting a class-action status to the said lawsuit.
There were 65 different brands of light cigarettes with hundreds of advertising campaigns for over 35 years covered by the class certification. Representatives of the tobacco companies said that the certification was overboard and the issues are so individualized for each brand or each smoker’s cases that the lawsuit cannot be and should not be grouped in a class.
"Almost all of (the light cigarette brands) never spoke of health or safety as part of their advertising," Theodore Grossman said.
U.S. District Judge Jack B. Weinstein issued the certification of a class of smokers as potential plaintiffs in the case, which claims that tobacco companies duped the public into believing that “light” cigarettes were less harmful to their health. Cigarette makers, on the other hand, are disturbed by the class certification because it would cover nearly everyone who ever purchased a cigarette considering that light cigarettes were introduced in the early 1970’s with an estimated 50 million U.S. residents.
The plaintiffs are asking for a whopping $280 billion in damages. The amount could triple to more than $800 billion if the smokers’ federal racketeering claims are granted. The case in now known as the Schwab case for its lead plaintiff, Barbara Schwab.