Late last year tobacco company Philip Morris International’s (PMI) attempted to sue the Australian government for billions over the introduction of plain packing of cigarettes. This court case happened in a secretive court system, just like the one that they are trying to introduce in the EU-USA trade deal, TTIP. PMI failed in their attempt and the case report has just been published.
It is indisputably a good thing that PMI lost the case. But people who argue in favour of the same ‘corporate court’ system in TTIP (the Investor State Dispute Settlement mechanism, or ISDS) are claiming this as proof that the system works, justice was done, and the ISDS system functions responsibly to make sure that corporations can’t abuse it.
Here’s five reasons why that’s not true.
1. The cost to the Australian taxpayer was astronomical
The costs of the case are yet to be apportioned. The Australian Government says it has spent Aus$50 million defending this case. This sum might also include the legal costs of a similar challenge via the World Trade Organisation to plain packaging, but it’s still an enormous amount. Under ISDS, the huge cost of defending these cases is often carried by the government, and therefore the taxpayer, regardless of the outcome.
2. The premise of plain packaging was not tested in this case
The case was lost on a technicality relating to which country PMI was registered in at the time that the relevant trade deal was agreed on. The issue of plain packaging and big tobacco’s profits has not been tested in an ISDS case and it’s likely that similar cases will be tried again in the fut
Recent Comments