The legal nature of tobacco from the product liability paradigm

Abstract

The particular characteristics of tobacco as a consumer good, make it difficult to include it among traditional legal and doctrinaire categories of products to determine the civil liability involved in alleged damages resulting from its consumption. In this scenario, we have noticed the need of, first, an analytic study of the legal categories involved (defective product and harmful product) in order to confirm or exclude their application to the product in question. Secondly, we have analyzed the characteristics associated with this product which distinguish it from those that make part of the above categories, in order to determine the appropriate legal nature of this mass-market consumer good and specify the potentially liable subjects in cases of damage.