Government
AMA urges Illinois court to uphold verdict against Philip Morris
NEWS IN BRIEF — Posted Aug. 2, 2004
The Illinois Supreme Court should uphold a lower court decision that Philip Morris broke state laws in the way it marketed its "light" cigarettes, according to the American Medical Association/State Medical Societies Litigation Center, the Illinois State Medical Society and a half-dozen other associations.
After a three-month bench trial, the lower court ruled that the company had violated the Consumer Fraud and Deceptive Business Practices Act and the Illinois Uniform Deceptive Trade Practices Act by claiming that light cigarettes "were less harmful or safer than their counterparts" when light cigarettes were "actually more harmful and more hazardous."
In a friend-of-the-court brief filed with the Illinois Supreme Court in July, the AMA and other groups urged justices to stand by the earlier decision because "from a public health standpoint, the detrimental consequences of Philip Morris' conduct have been enormous. Its brazen conduct has substantially injured the health and safety of millions of Illinois citizens, cost the state's citizens billions of dollars and offends the public policy of this state."
Note: This item originally appeared at http://www.ama-assn.org/amednews/2004/08/02/gvbf0802.htm.
