Nigeria: British American Tobacco faces accusations of targeting the young

A News item from Business Respect, Issue Number 111, dated 7 Jul 2007

British American Tobacco and other tobacco companies are being sued by four Nigerian states over allegations that they targeted young and underage smokers in Nigeria to increase smoking rates.

According to lawyers for the state of Kano, the companies sponsored pop concerts and sporting events, even in some cases giving away free cigarettes to entice minors to take up smoking. The state is aiming to win costs of treating smoking-related diseases, with damages in the region of just under $40bn.

Much of the evidence for the legal action is to come from tobacco companies' internal documents, released in the US in the 1990s.

BAT has described the allegations as completely unfounded. “We don’t market to children and we have never attempted to do so,” the company said. “We also actively lobby governments to raise the age at which people are allowed to buy tobacco to 18.”

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