Light Cigarettes - RICOCIGARETTE COMPANIES FACE MASSIVE RICO LAWSUIT Confidential Light Cigarette Plaintiff Questionnaire A massive lawsuit was filed against the major cigarette companies on May 11, 2004, by four "light" cigarette smokers in federal court in Brooklyn, New York. The proposed class action lawsuit, which seeks to represent the claims of millions of current and former smokers, alleges that the cigarette companies conspired to deceive the American public about the comparative dangers of "light" or "low tar" cigarettes. The lawsuit seeks to force the cigarette companies to refund the price of "light" cigarettes whose sale was facilitated by convincing current and future smokers that "light" cigarettes were less harmful than regular cigarettes. The potential damages resulting from the conspiracy could rise into the billions of dollars. On September 25, 2006, the federal district court in Brooklyn certified the proposed class, permitting the case to move forward on behalf on all affected smokers, and set a tentative trial date in 2007. However, on November 16, 2006, the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit granted appellate review of the trial court's class certification order and permanently stayed all trial court proceedings pending briefing and oral argument before the appeals court on the class certification issue. That argument was heard on July 10, 2007, and the parties are awaiting the Court's opinion. "The light cigarette fraud was merely the next step in the cigarette companies' decades-long efforts to deceive the American public about the real dangers of smoking cigarettes," said Burton Finkelstein, senior partner of Finkelstein, Thompson & Loughran, a Washington, DC-based class action firm serving as co-lead counsel for the plaintiffs and the class. "When reports began to surface in the 1960s and 1970s which raised concerns about the health implications of smoking, the cigarette companies shifted their conspiracy from denying the health risks of smoking, to the creation of an elaborate plan to convince smokers to switch to 'light cigarettes' instead of quitting altogether. The companies spent hundreds of millions of dollars on marketing and advertising intended to convince Americans that the companies had developed less harmful cigarettes. These assertions were a complete sham." Recently-published public health reports have indicated that "light" cigarettes are not only no less harmful than regular cigarettes, they may in fact be more harmful because of the manner in which a smoker inhales on the cigarette. The popularity of light cigarettes, however, has increased to the point that they comprise approximately 85% of all cigarettes sold. The light cigarette RICO allegations are similar to allegations previously filed by class counsel under certain state consumer fraud laws. Subsequent to the filing of those state cases, the federal government filed a RICO complaint echoing many of these light cigarette fraud allegations. "The government is primarily seeking to recover Medicare payments it has incurred as a result of the fraud. By contrast, our clients’ case seeks to force the companies to refund to consumers the ill-gotten gains arising from the companies' deceptive activities," said Herbert E. Milstein, senior partner of Cohen, Milstein, Hausfeld & Toll, P.L.L.C., which has offices in New York City, Washington, D.C. and Chicago, and is the other co-lead counsel for the plaintiffs and the class. "In short, the government is protecting its interests and we are protecting those of consumers." |
