Health

The investor-to-state dispute settlement (ISDS) provisions proposed in trade agreements give pharmaceutical corporations the right to sue governments for compensation if domestic laws negatively affect future earnings on their intellectual property or investments, and even if these laws are in accordance with public interests. Better access to medicines or preventing unsafe or ineffective medicines from entering the market could prove problematic.

Major US, Canadian and French pharmaceutical companies have recently challenged pro-public health measures through ISDS disputes brought under ISDS provisions.

Chemical corporations have also used ISDS in numerous occasions to challenge national bans on hazardous substances.

Most well-known cases include:

• Ethyl (US) vs. Canada: following Canada’s ban on the toxic petrol additive MMT, the US producer sued for US$201 million in compensation. In 1998, Canada agreed in a settlement to pay US$13 million and withdrew the ban (NAFTA invoked).

• Philip Morris Asia (Hong Kong) vs. Australia: When Australia introduced plain packaging for all tobacco products in 2011, Philip Morris sued Australia before an arbitral tribunal. In its December 2015 decision, the tribunal dismissed the case, albeit on legal grounds only. Australia spent A$24 million in legal costs but Philip Morris only paid half, leaving the Australian taxpayers to pay the other half. As a consequence of this case, countries ranging from Namibia, Togo to New Zealand decided to wait to introduce their own plain packaging for tobacco products. (Australia-Hong Kong BIT invoked)

• Dow Chemical (US) vs. Canada: the chemical corporation initiated a dispute for losses it alleged were caused by a Quebec provincial ban on lawn pesticides containing the active ingredient 2,4-D, classified as a possible carcinogen and one of the ingredients in Agent Orange, the herbicide widely used during the Vietnam war. In a settlement in 2011, the ban was sustained but Quebec was required to state that “products containing 2,4-D do not pose an unacceptable risk to human health or the environment provided that the instructions on their label are followed.” (NAFTA invoked.)

Photo: Aqua Mechanical / CC BY 2.0

(March 2020)

The Ecologist | 9-Jul-2020
Corporations are busy weaponising obscure legal instruments to sue government for their actions to save lives and jobs during the coronavirus crisis.
Financial Express Bangladesh | 7-Jul-2020
Amidst the global risk of ISDS claims, it is incumbent to shed light on Bangladesh’s BIT structure and its feasibility to confront ISDS claims in the backdrop of Covid-19 regulatory space.
CIAR Global | 6-Jul-2020
La pandemia Covid19 ha supuesto un antes y un después en nuestra forma de contemplar el mundo, y lo ha hecho a todos los niveles y afectando a todos los estamentos de la sociedad con repercusiones sociales, económicas y sanitarias que hace apenas un año no habríamos imaginado.
Civil society groups sound alarm over COVID-19 claims in ’corporate courts’ | 5-Jul-2020
Countries could be facing a wave of cases from transnational corporations suing governments over actions taken to respond to the Covid pandemic using a system known as investor-state dispute settlement, or ISDS. Some 630 organisations from across the world, representing hundreds of millions of people, are calling on governments in an open letter to urgently take action to shut down this threat.
Scoop | 29-Jun-2020
The Transpacific Partnership Agreement involves investor - state dispute settlement clauses, which large companies may use ISDS to sue governments for actions they took to stop the spread of the virus.
S2B Network | 25-Jun-2020
We urge you to take immediate action to ensure that the duty of governments to regulate in the public interest is safeguarded and put beyond the scope of ISDS claims.
TNI | 23-Jun-2020
Cómo los abogados se preparan para demandar a los Estados por las medidas tomadas en respuesta al COVID 19.
Collectif Stop Tafta | 23-Jun-2020
Des bureaux d’avocats démarchent des investisseurs privés pour les encourager à poursuivre les pouvoirs publics devant une justice parallèle afin de réclamer des dizaines ou des centaines de millions d’euros d’indemnités.
Seattle to Brussels Network | 15-Jun-2020
Les escribimos hoy para instarles a que tomen la iniciativa de asegurar que los países de todo el mundo no se enfrenten a una ola de demandas por parte de inversores extranjeros a partir del mecanismo de solución de controversias entre inversores y Estados (conocido por su sigla en inglés, ISDS) derivadas de las medidas adoptadas para hacer frente a la pandemia y la crisis económica asociada al COVID-19.
World Commerce Review | 11-Jun-2020
Arbitration cases due to COVID emergency measures would exacerbate the challenges that public budgets are already facing due to the need for stimulus measures and the difficulty in collecting government revenue.