Four individual "lights" lawsuits filed against Big Tobacco in Finland
Author: Michael Saarikoski LL.Lic., M.Soc.SPRESS RELEASE
Helsinki, March 9th 2005
Four individual lawsuits have been filed on March 4th, 7th, 8th and 9th 2005 against three Finnish tobacco-companies: Amerintie 1 Oy, Amer-yhtymä Oyj (Philip Morris' brands) and British American Tobacco Nordic Oy (BAT brands). In this first Finnish "lights" case, four women claim compensatory damages due to lung cancer and other tobacco-related diseases.
The Plaintiffs claim that they have been mislead by false marketing statements disseminated by the Defendants denying the existence of adverse health-effects of light cigarrettes, and the Defendants continued public downplaying of pharmacological addiction created by nicotine.
One of the Plaintiffs' leading arguments is that the Plaintiffs could not have made an "informed and free choise" while being addicted to nicotine. Furthermore the Plaintiffs argue, that the informed choise -defence is legally invalid due to the Defendants' denial of causation link between cigarrettes and diseases and their firm statements elsewhere that they had no greater knowledge of the causation link than which the general public had at all times.
Mainly based on tobacco-companies internal documents produced in US litigations, the Plaintiffs establish that the tobacco-companies, in order to secure addiction, deliberatedly manipulated the nicotine delivery levels and enhanced the pharmacological impact of nicotine by for example using various chemical additives to tobacco and genetically manipulating tobacco.
All cases are tried in the District Court of Helsinki. Expected date for the preliminary hearings would be in the summer 2005.
Lead Counsel for the Plaintiffs' six-lawyer only litigation team is professor Erkki Aurejärvi LL.Dr., assisted by Michael Saarikoski LL.Lic., M.Soc.Sc., both of whom are leading experts in Finnish tort and insurance law. Each Plaintiff is also represented by an individual counsel whom are Heikki Salo, Attorney at Law; Timo Salonen, Attorney at Law; Risto Kurki-Suonio, Attorney at Law LL.M.; and Leo Koskenvuo, Attorney at Law. Professor Aurejärvi formerly became known as the Lead Counsel for the Plaintiff in the first European lawsuit filed against The Big Tobacco in 1988. In that case the Finnish Supreme Court eventually voted 4 to 1 in favour for the tobacco-companies involved in June 7th 2001. -------
Contact: Michael Saarikoski LL.Lic., M.Soc.S. michael.saarikoski@helsinki.fi