A 14-year-old lawsuit seeking C$27bn (£16.9bn, €20.7bn) in damages against three tobacco firms in Canada is to come to trial. The class action alleges that Imperial Tobacco, JTI-Macdonald and Rothmans Benson & Hedges lied about nicotine levels in their products, and hid evidence on the health impact of smoking. The suit is for C$10,000 for each of Quebec’s 1.8 million citizens that claim they are unable to quit smoking. Imperial Tobacco called the suits an “opportunistic cash grab”. The three defendants are likely to start giving evidence in 2013, and have said that they will seek damages from the Canadian government should they lose the case.
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