Alleged Violations of Tobacco Control and Other Laws

Tobacco companies aggressively block, weaken, and undermine policies designed to protect public health and reduce tobacco use, and at times they have been found to work outside of countries’ laws. In multiple instances, tobacco companies have been found to have violated the law.

Thirteen former employees of a marketing agency employed by Philip Morris International (PMI) filed a complaint about signing an “illegal contract” to promote PMI’s IQOS tobacco product. The former employees claim PMI misled them to advertise a tobacco product (IQOS). PMI presented IQOS to the former employees as a “revolutionary tool” and were instructed to test the tobacco product during demonstrations, despite not smoking tobacco themselves. This indirect advertising system is “totally illegal,” according to the Directorate General of Health, since the law prohibits any promotion of tobacco, including person to person.