FR: Philip Morris And Seita In Court

On 29 January a French civil court found the US tobacco manufacturer guilty of violating laws prohibiting the advertising of tobacco products. The case was brought by the National Committee against Tobacco Use and the European Union of Non-Smokers; both groups had sought damages of FF3 million, about $550,000, but to their embarassment the court fined the company a symbolic one franc.

The protest groups brought their case against Philip Morris following an advertising campaign by the company, questioning the growing number of anti-smoking regulations around the world. Since the passage of the loi Evin the advertising of tobacco products has been banned in France.

Meanwhile the French tobacco monopoly, Seita, has been fined FF80,000 for advertising favourable to tobacco. The company was also ordered to pay FF80,000 in damages to the National Committee against Tobacco Use. Both fines relate not to any particular advertising campaign, but to a poster exhibition of packaging designs for the Gitane Blond brand, staged at the Pompidou Centre in Paris in February 1996.