A manufacturer is required to inform a customer “adequately”, according to the Court of Appeal of Quebec in Imperial Tobacco Canada et al. c Conseil Québécois sur le tabac et la santé et al.
The Court was not impressed with the arguments that the customers of the tobacco companies knew of some potential danger connected to their product use. To assume the risk, the users must make an informed choice freely. This, apparently, requires a high degree of knowledge of harm and its probability to occur. If a manufacturer fails to adequately inform (or, worse, attempts to misinform) users about possible risks, users are not at fault if failed to take precautions necessary.
Clearly, this logic could be applied to other products, not only to tobacco. Is it possible to envisage similar claims against, for example, food manufacturers (including alcohol and “energetic” beverages producers), publishers and media companies or pharmaceutical companies?
In any case, according to the Court of Appeal, the tobacco companies still owe smokers more than a hundred millions of dollars.
