Judge Allows Class-Action Lawsuit on Youth Tobacco Marketing December 15, 2000
News Summary
A Superior Court judge is allowing a California lawsuit to proceed as a class-action claim that seeks $682 million from tobacco companies for marketing their products to teenagers, the Associated Press reported Dec. 14.As a result of the ruling by Superior Court Judge Ronald S. Prager, an estimated 1.5 million Californians who smoked as minors will be eligible to join the lawsuit against R.J. Reynolds, Lorillard Tobacco Co., Brown & Williamson, and Philip Morris.
The lawsuit claims that the tobacco companies violated California's consumer-protection laws, and as a result, should forfeit profits earned from California minors between April 1994 and December 1999.
William S. Ohlemeyer, a vice president at Philip Morris, said the judge's ruling to make the lawsuit a class action creates "an unmanageable case and a chaotic situation." He said that the company would seek to reverse the ruling.
The lawsuit is the first of its kind in the United States to focus on the marketing of tobacco products to teens.
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