Big Tobacco proposes to pay nearly $24 billion to settle Canadian lawsuits Reuters
(Reuters) -Cigarette makers Philip Morris (NYSE: ), British American cigars (NYSE:) and Japanese cigarettes (OTC:) will pay C$32.5 billion ($23.6 billion) to settle Canada’s long-running tobacco case, as part of a proposed court-appointed arbitrator, Philip Morris said Friday.
The Canadian units of the three tobacco giants suffered a major blow in 2015 after a Quebec court awarded damages to nearly 100,000 smokers and ex-smokers who said the companies knew since the 1950s that their products caused cancer and other diseases and failed to warn consumers. enough.
After an appeal, the Quebec court in 2019 agreed with the 2015 decision that gave smokers in the Canadian province about C$ 15 billion, forcing the subsidiaries of all Canadian companies to seek bankruptcy protection.
The subsidiaries have been subject to a court-supervised arbitration process negotiating a possible settlement since then.
The distribution of the total amount of money paid among the tobacco giants remains unresolved, according to Philip Morris.
“While significant issues remain to be resolved in this process, we are confident that this legal process will be completed soon, allowing RBH (Rothmans, Benson & Hedges) and its stakeholders to focus on the future,” said Philip Morris CEO, Jacek Olczak. statement on Friday.
Rothmans, Benson & Hedges is the Canadian unit of Philip Morris.
British American Tobacco earlier on Friday said the proposed plan represents a positive step towards a solution. It did not provide details of the plan by Philip Morris.
BAT (LON: ) said its unit Imperial Tobacco Canada supports the settlement framework and structure and that the settlement will be funded from existing cash and cash flows from future sales of tobacco products in Canada.
BAT shares were down 3% on Friday morning.
Philip Morris said that the voting for this program will take place in December this year and if the applicants are accepted, the hearing for the evaluation of the approval of this program will be expected in the first half of next year.
Japan Tobacco did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.
($1 = 1.3792 Canadian dollars)
