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Light Cigarettes Lawsuit is on in the state of N.Y.
30
September 2006
As debate over the actual benefits or disadvantages of
light cigarettes rages, with new found
evidence of cigarette manufacturers controlling and enhancing
the amounts of nicotine and tar in what suppose to be a
"lighter cigarette" a U.S. federal judge in Brooklyn, New York ruled Monday
that people who smoked light cigarettes, which were often
marketed as a safer alternative to regular cigarettes,
can pursue their fraud claims as a class-action suit.
Lawyers for the plaintiffs who smoked light cigarettes, argued that tobacco companies
reaped between $120 billion and $200 billion in extra sales
through the light cigarettes deception.
The light cigarettes lawsuit was accepted by Judge Jack Weinstein of
the Brooklyn Federal Court in New York after analyzing the case, and scheduled
jury selection for January.
The case of the
light cigarettes was filed against
Philip Morris USA, R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co., British
American Tobacco, Liggett Group, Brown & Williamson and
Lorillard Tobacco by smokers who were misled into believing
light cigarettes were safer than regular ones.
One of the lawyers said at
least 50 million smokers will be asking for a small portion
of the money tobacco companies made from the sale of light cigarettes
over a 36-year period. Meanwhile, light cigarettes
were introduced in the 1971.
The lawyer also emphasized
they will ask the companies of trade regulation assemblies in
50 counties to cancel or postpone their production permits.
The cigarette companies announced they will appeal the Brooklyn
Judge over this light cigarettes lawsuit.
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