Lifestyle Torts, Market Manipulation and the Tobacco Industry: A Comment on Létourneau v JTI-MacDonald Corp
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Marie-Eve Arbour
Abstract
In a Canadian first, Quebec’s Superior Court handed down judgment in 2015 to hold three tobacco companies liable for damages sustained by smokers. Two class actions were joined for the purposes of the hearing: one gathering together victims who suffered actual diseases (Blais) and one encompassing smokers who complained of addiction to a dangerous product (Létourneau). Both significant and symbolic compensatory and punitive damages were awarded to the victims, after general causation was established on the basis of epidemiological evidence. Though still pending on appeal, the case is ground-breaking as it addresses important issues surrounding market manipulation, deceptive practices and the role of science within the adjudication process.
Acknowledgment
The case was discussed at the Third Seminar of the International Research Network on Technological Innovations, Uncertainty and the Law of Civil Liability ‘Incident, Crisis and Disaster’ held at the Université de Bretagne Orientale, in Brest (14–17 June 2016). The author acknowledges valuable research assistance by William Bérubé and Jean-Christophe Anderson, LLB candidates at the Laval Law Faculty, and funding from the Canadian Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC).
© 2016 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston
Artikel in diesem Heft
- Frontmatter
- Frontmatter
- Articles
- Tort Liability for Pure Economic Loss: A Perspective from the United States and Some Comparative European Insights
- Rethinking Alcock in the New Media Age
- Legislation
- The New Czech Civil Code and Compensation for Damage: Introductory Remarks
- Compensation for Damage in the New Czech Code: Selected Provisions in Translation
- Case Commentary
- Lifestyle Torts, Market Manipulation and the Tobacco Industry: A Comment on Létourneau v JTI-MacDonald Corp
- Book Reviews
- John Oberdiek (ed), Philosophical Foundations of the Law of Torts (Oxford University Press, Oxford 2014) ISBN 978-0198701385. xv + 447 pp. € 79.00 (hardback).
- Octavian Ichim, Just Satisfaction under the European Convention on Human Rights (Cambridge University Press 2015). xxxiv + 376 pp. ISBN 9781316191491 £ 75.00 (hardback).
Artikel in diesem Heft
- Frontmatter
- Frontmatter
- Articles
- Tort Liability for Pure Economic Loss: A Perspective from the United States and Some Comparative European Insights
- Rethinking Alcock in the New Media Age
- Legislation
- The New Czech Civil Code and Compensation for Damage: Introductory Remarks
- Compensation for Damage in the New Czech Code: Selected Provisions in Translation
- Case Commentary
- Lifestyle Torts, Market Manipulation and the Tobacco Industry: A Comment on Létourneau v JTI-MacDonald Corp
- Book Reviews
- John Oberdiek (ed), Philosophical Foundations of the Law of Torts (Oxford University Press, Oxford 2014) ISBN 978-0198701385. xv + 447 pp. € 79.00 (hardback).
- Octavian Ichim, Just Satisfaction under the European Convention on Human Rights (Cambridge University Press 2015). xxxiv + 376 pp. ISBN 9781316191491 £ 75.00 (hardback).
