Lessons learned from tobacco control : court decisions that ratify public health policies

The report shows how food and beverage companies use legal arguments to block food labelling standards. Many of the arguments against front-of-package food labelling can be responded to based on similar judicial precedents in the area of tobacco control. In the 1990’s tobacco companies settled an agreement, the “Master Settlement Agreement” (MSA) obliging them to publish documents regarding misinformation campaigns that hid health consequences of addiction to nicotine, as well as the existence of strategies to block public health policies. Misinformation strategies deployed by the food industry are very similar to those used by the tobacco industry