Altadis has won a lawsuit against Philip Morris Spain after the Madrid Commercial Court number three condemned the American tobacco company for unfair competition consisting of “unlawful” advertising of Iqos, a device that heats the tobacco instead of burning it, and ‘Heets’ tobacco. In addition, the court ordered Philip Morris to cease its advertising campaign for these products in the terms in which it has been carried out and prohibited it from repeating the campaign in the future. The court has also ordered Philip Morris to publish the ruling in a national newspaper and to pay for the legal fees.
According to the ruling, the proceedings were initiated by a lawsuit filed on 23 January 2018 by ALTADIS, S.A., against PHILIP S.A. against PHILIP MORRIS SPAIN, S.L. The Commercial Court n.3 of Madrid delivered a judgment on 30 September 2019, declaring that the defendant engaged Unfair Competition consisting of unlawful advertising of the IQOS device and the HEAT tobacco, ordering the defendant to cease and desist from those acts, in particular the advertising campaign for those products, to pay for the legal fees and to publish the judgment in the newspaper Expansión at its own expense.
After the publication of the ruling, Philip Morris appealed against it, and on December 21, 2021, the Provincial Court of Madrid dismissed the appeal filed by PHILIP MORRIS SPAIN, S.L. against the judgment, ordering PHILIP MORRIS SPAIN, S.L. to pay the costs of the second instance.
The parties may file an appeal against this judgment, which will be heard by the First Chamber of the Supreme Court.
On this appeal, Altadis was represented by its long-time Legal director Ignacio Millán Latasa de Aranibar, and today secretary and member of the company´s Board.
Philip Morris was represented by Uría Menéndez, with partner and head of the Litigation and Arbitration practices areas of the Barcelona office Alejandro Ferreres, together with partner Cristian Gual, also from the firm´s Barcelona office.
