Judge Awards $4.9M to Smokers in Philip Morris Class Action

Philip Morris USA was ordered to pay $4.94 million plus interest for “deceptive” marketing of Marlboro Light cigarettes in Massachusetts state court.

In a class action lawsuit spanning 17-years, the plaintiffs claimed that smokers were deceived by false advertising practices into buying what they thought was a safer cigarette.

The 197,000 Marlboro Lights smokers will get $25 each plus interest — the smokers’ attorneys had sought $600 million from Altria Group Inc.’s Philip Morris USA — after a Massachusetts judge found that Philip Morris falsely advertised that their Marlboro Lights cigarettes contained less tar and nicotine causing consumers to overpay for the product.

Superior Court Judge Edward P. Leibensperger released his 41-page decision on Feb.15, finding that smokers had “paid too much for the misrepresented cigarette” but that their attorneys were unable to prove that the smokers shared similar injuries beyond overpaying. Although Marlboro Lights were just as harmful as Marlboro Reds, the judge stated, “I have no evidential basis for quantifying the actual damages of each class member.”

The judge, who reached his ruling after hearing evidence for five weeks during a bench trial last year, rejected the plaintiffs’ attempt to quantify the injury through a questionnaire asking smokers what they would have paid for an imaginary cigarette that was safer.

The plaintiffs’ lawyer Tom Urmy said the class will appeal the judge’s decision not to order Philip Morris to give up $68 million in pretax profits on sales of Marlboro Lights in Massachusetts. “The defendant should not be allowed to profit from a marketing fraud,” Urmy said.

With interest, the award increases to $15.1 million, according to attorneys involved in the case.

Since the Massachusetts case was filed in 1998, courts have narrowed the scope of class action litigation. In a similar case against Philip Morris, the Illinois Supreme Court last year threw out a $10 billion award made in 2003 to buyers of Marlboro Lights. The Food and Drug Administration banned the use of the label “Light” in 2010.

According to the judgment, the Philip Morris Marlboro Lights class action lawsuit award would be open to all Class Members in the U.S. who purchased Marlboro Lights cigarettes between 1994 and 1998. Each Class Member will receive statutory amount of $25 for a total of $4,942,500, plus prejudgment interest and attorney’s fees.

The plaintiffs are represented by Thomas V. Urmy Jr., Ian McLoughlin and Michelle Blauner of Shapiro Haber & Urmy LLP.

The Philip Morris Marlboro Lights Class Action Lawsuit is Aspinell v. Philip Morris USA Inc., Case No. SUCV1998-06002, in the Superior Court of Massachusetts, Suffolk County.