LALIVE

LALIVE (formerly known as Lalive Budin & Partners) is a law firm based in Switzerland, with offices in Geneva, Zurich, and Doha (Qatar).¹
One of the firm’s areas of expertise is ‘Investment Arbitration’.²

Relationship with the Tobacco Industry

LALIVE has worked for Philip Morris International (PMI).³⁴

2010-2016: Represented Tobacco Company in Lawsuit Against Uruguay

In 2010, LALIVE was one of three law firms that represented PMI in its lawsuit against the government of Uruguay for allegedly breaching the 1991 Switzerland-Uruguay Bilateral Investment Treaty by introducing tobacco policies affecting tobacco packaging and trademarks.³⁵ LALIVE laywers who worked on the case included Veijo Heiskanen, Franz Stirnimann, and Samuel Moss.⁶ The case was dismissed in 2016.⁵

• For more information on this case, visit our page on Philip Morris vs the Government of Uruguay.

2009: Prepared Report Arguing Against Tobacco Plain Packaging

In July 2009, two years before Australia became the first country to introduce the mandatory requirement for the plain packaging of tobacco products, PMI commissioned LALIVE to prepare a report summarising alleged legal concerns with this tobacco policy. The result was a report titled ‘Why Plain Packaging is in Violation of WTO Members’ International Obligations under TRIPS and the Paris Convention”,⁴ which claimed that plain packaging was a severe breach of intellectual property (IP) rights, and warned that those countries imposing this measure would expose themselves to World Trade Organisation (WTO) dispute settlement proceedings.
LALIVE’s report was used by PMI to undermine legitimate independent evidence on plain packaging and lobby decision makers in the Netherlands⁷⁸, Australia, and the the UK against plain packaging. The report was also cited by other tobacco industry-funded research on plain packaging, including a paper written by law firm Bird and Bird LLP.⁹
LALIVE’s report was one of many third-party reports opposing plain packaging. Specifically it was used to voice one of the tobacco industry’s main arguments against plain packaging – that the policy breached IP rights.

• Evidence that debunks the tobacco industry’s argument that the plain packaging policy breaches IP right, can be found on the page Countering Industry Arguments Against Plain Packaging: It Breaches Intellectual Property Rights.

Other Affiliations

UNITAR

In 2012, Corporate Europe Observatory (CEO) criticised LALIVE for making money by pitting corporations against governments, whilst at the same time running e-learning courses on investment arbitration for UNITAR, the United Nations Institute for Training and Research.¹⁰ In September/October 2016, LALIVE and UNITAR ran the course ‘Introduction to Investment Arbitration’.¹¹

TobaccoTactics Resources

• Philip Morris International
• Philip Morris vs the Government of Uruguay
• Third Party Techniques
• Countering Industry Arugments Against Plain Packaging: It Breaches Intellectual Property Rights
• Plain Packaging in the UK: Tobacco Industry Funded Research, Expert Opinion and Public Relations
• Australia: Funding Think Tanks and Hiring Independent Experts
• Bird and Bird LLP

Relevant Link

LALIVE’s website