Victorious: Uruguay wins against US tobacco firm
Victorious: Uruguay wins against US tobacco firm
MONTEVIDEO:
Uruguay won an arbitration case against US tobacco giant Philip Morris, which sued the state claiming its anti-tobacco law harmed the cigarette maker’s business, the country’s president said Friday. “The Uruguayan state has emerged victorious and the tobacco company’s claims have been roundly rejected,” President Tabara Vasquez said in a televised address. Philip Morris sued Uruguay in 2010 for $25 million over legislation enacted in 2006 banning smoking in public and tobacco advertising. Uruguay became the first Latin American country and the fifth in the world to ban smoking in public places under Vazquez, an oncologist who was serving a previous term as president (2005-2010) before returning to power last year. The company argued the law violated an investment treaty between Uruguay and Switzerland.
Published in The Express Tribune, July 10th, 2016.
Uruguay won an arbitration case against US tobacco giant Philip Morris, which sued the state claiming its anti-tobacco law harmed the cigarette maker’s business, the country’s president said Friday. “The Uruguayan state has emerged victorious and the tobacco company’s claims have been roundly rejected,” President Tabara Vasquez said in a televised address. Philip Morris sued Uruguay in 2010 for $25 million over legislation enacted in 2006 banning smoking in public and tobacco advertising. Uruguay became the first Latin American country and the fifth in the world to ban smoking in public places under Vazquez, an oncologist who was serving a previous term as president (2005-2010) before returning to power last year. The company argued the law violated an investment treaty between Uruguay and Switzerland.
Published in The Express Tribune, July 10th, 2016.