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About 3.5 million citizens should have been awarded 3,000.00 euro each, for a total of 10.5 billion euro.
But on April 13th 2011, the XIII Section of the Civil Court of Rome declared inadmissible the class action proposed by the Codacons* against British American Tobacco Italia, in favor of the smokers of the cigarettes produced by that company.
This outcome was perfectly foreseeable; no bookmaker would have accepted bets on it. In fact, no one could imagine that in a country where the multinationals custom-make their own laws and are “exonerated” from paying taxes and couldn’t care less about court sentences, judges might have allowed a “class action” like this, as though we were in America…
According to the Codacons, BAT uses chemical cocktails to increase the addiction effects of nicotine, misleading the consumers. But the Italian judges, even though no one has been able to find out the type and dosage of the tobacco additives, sustained that smokers have been adequately informed on the risks for their health. Carlo Rienzi, president of the Codacons, reacted stating that “the motivations of the Court of Rome are absolutely absurd” and he said he plans to lodge an appeal in the Court of Appeals.
* Codacons - Coordinamento delle Associazioni per la Difesa dell'Ambiente e dei Diritti degli Utenti e dei Consumatori (Coordination of the Associations for the Protectioon of the Environment and the Rights of Users and Consumers).
A Ridiculous Sentence
If one finds it difficult to understand why governments are unable to know precisely, to eliminate, to regulate or to reduce the substances that makers add to tobacco, in spite of the fact that cigarettes are food products according to law, he ought to read the sentence of the XIII Sect. of the Civil Court of Rome.
The judges, even though they do not know what cigarettes contain, expressed unbelievable and interminable praise for the chemical additives. It was so ridiculous that it looked like a “copy and paste” of an email sent to them by Big tobacco and it totally disregards all the studies and literature on the subject:
“The use of additives is justified by the intent to attribute to the product a specific and a typical taste; as such it is indispensable to enable the manufacturer to be competitive on the market… In other words these additives, of all types reduce the harshness of the smoke, the dryness in the mouth and throat, giving a particular taste (even sweet) to the smoke, but they do not have addictive effects nor do they serve the purpose of increasing the smoker’s relationship of dependency on nicotine”.
Although studies affirm the exact opposite, the sentence repeats one of the fundamental instigations that promotes cigarette smoking claiming that one can quit smoking cigarettes whenever he wants to:
“The effects of nicotine, in light of research and of medical and scientific studies, cannot be compared to heavy drugs like heroin and cocaine, and cigarettes do not have the same influence on the will of the smoker that would make him unable to quit smoking”.
The views of the Italian judge differ totally from those of his American counterparts, who rewarded the class action promoted by smokers, condemning the tobacco multinationals to pay compensation amounting to billions of dollars. According to the America judge, punishing the cigarette manufacturers serves the purpose of discouraging the use of false advertising, the promotion of smoking among minors and the adding of substances that lead to addiction.
«Big Tobacco Guarantees»
Today chemical additives enable producers to make strengthened cigarettes, aimed at increasing the consumers’ dependence. When cigarettes are treated with ammonia, the nicotine values appear to be within the limits prescribed by law, but the addiction to that cigarette is greater. The consumer smokes “strengthened” nicotine without knowing it.
“Ammonia is the secret of Marlboro’s success”… “Cigarette manufactures have manipulated nicotine”… “Philip Morris admits that it produces cigarettes that are more addictive”… These are not provocations of the Black Blocks; they are the titles of articles in the most respectable American newspapers, like USA Today, the Washington Post and the Los Angeles Times.
In Italy in 2010, a manufacturer who wanted to change the chemistry of nicotine could do it freely. The state checks the levels of nicotine, tar and CO2; but the rest goes “by trust”, based on a sort of producers’ self-certification.
If there are no inspections, who guarantees that in Italy today the cigarette multinationals, who are tax evaders and licensed smugglers and who take home 2 billion 800 million a year in profits tax free, do not alter the chemistry of nicotine? It is something they could do with no problems.
The Contradictions of the Codacons
It is not clear why the Codacons proposed their class action only against British American Tobacco, listing all its brands in detail, and did not involve also the other two big makers on the Italian market, Philip Morris and Japan Tobacco with their popular Marlboros and Camels. Maybe BAT’s cigarettes are worse?
The Codacons is not new to strange behavior. Like when it lined up on the side of Big Tobacco and against the European Union “to defend the health of the Italians starting from the young people”, in the trial for the abolition of Italy’s minimum price of cigarettes.
According to the European Union, the increases of the minimum price safeguard the manufacturers’ profits while an increase of the tax pressure would safeguard the revenue of the State. Said simply, in Italy the State takes in less than it should, while the manufacturers earn far too much. On that occasion, the Codacons came out on the field and effectively protected health – the health of the pocketbooks of cigarette manufacturers.
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