Philip Morris Victorious in $1.8B Marlboro Lights Class Action

A St. Louis jury has returned a verdict in favor of Philip Morris USA in a “light” cigarette marketing class action lawsuit that requested as much as $1.8 billion in damages, according to a press release that was published last week.

The jury reportedly deliberated for less than one hour before returning the verdict for Philip Morris.

“The jury correctly rejected plaintiffs’ allegations of misrepresentation and damages,” Murray Garnick, Altria Client Services senior vice president and associate general counsel said, speaking on behalf of Philip Morris. “Over the years, we have been very successful in defending these cases on a variety of legal grounds.

The Philip Morris class action lawsuit, initially filed in 2000, accused the cigarette company of violating Missouri’s Merchandising Practices Act with regard to the marketing of Marlboro Lights cigarettes. Class Members include about 400,000 Missouri residents who purchased Marlboro Lights between 1995 and 2003.

This verdict comes about five years after a mistrial was declared in the Marlboro Lights class action lawsuit because the jury was deadlocked about whether they should award $700 million in damages to Class Members. The jury agreed that Philip Morris had misrepresented the dangers of Marlboro Lights, but were unable to agree on the verdict.

In 2009, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration began regulating tobacco products with the passage of the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act. The FDA prohibits tobacco manufacturers from using the term “Lights” and other descriptors unless they receive authorization to use the language.

Philip Morris has vigorously fought numerous lawsuits filed over its marketing of Marlboro Lights cigarettes.

In February, Philip Morris was ordered by a Massachusetts state court to pay nearly $5 million plus interest to more than 200,000 Class Members over the cigarette company’s marketing of Marlboro Lights cigarettes. That judge found that Philip Morris’ description of Marlboro Lights as “low-tar” was not justified and encouraged consumers to pay too much for the product. The plaintiffs in that cigarette marketing class action lawsuit initially sought $600 million on behalf of smokers who bought Marlboro Lights from 1994 to 1998.

Last month, Philip Morris urged the U.S. Supreme Court not to take on an appeal of the rejection of a $10 billion trial court judgment against it in Illinois. The judgment was reversed in 2005, reinstated in 2014, and rejected by the Illinois Supreme Court in 2015.

In a separate Marlboro class action lawsuit that was initially filed in 2006, a group of plaintiffs asked Philip Morris to pay for yearly cancer screenings because the company sold cigarettes that were overly harmful and put smokers at an increased risk of developing lung cancer. In February, a Massachusetts jury found that Philip Morris should not pay for the yearly cancer screenings of Marlboro cigarette smokers who are currently healthy. Philip Morris last month asked a judge to dismiss the one remaining claim in the litigation.

Current Class Counsel information for the Missouri Marlboro Lights class action lawsuit was not immediately available.

The Marlboro Lights Marketing Class Action Lawsuit is Larsen v. Philip Morris USA, Case No. 002-00406-02, in the 22nd Judicial Circuit Court in St. Louis, Missouri.