Source: National Post (ca)
Date: 2010-06-14
Author: Tom Blackwell , National Post

The cigarette industry is facing a novel new claim for
compensation over its 1990s smuggling spree, which has already
led to heavy civil and criminal penalties against four tobacco
companies.

Farmers have filed $150-million in class-action lawsuits,
alleging that the firms paid them the lower, export price for
tobacco that was initially sent to the United States, but then
smuggled back — tax-free — for the Canadian market.

They say they should have received the higher, domestic price for
that tobacco, and are demanding the companies now pay them the
difference, plus other damages.