Newsletter-21

220 NEWSLETTER 2016 The request pertaining to this case was registered by the Secretary General of ICSID on March 26, 2010, and the arbitral tribunal was constituted on March 15, 2011. Accordingly, the case has been pend- ing for more than six years. The core of the claims of the Claimants pertain to allegations that Uruguay violated the BIT in its treatment of the trademarks associ- ated with cigarette brands in which the Claimants had invested, by implementing strict tobacco-control measures regulating the tobacco industry. These measures shall be further explained, below. The Measures Challenged by the Claimants In this lawsuit, the Claimants challenged two measures adopted by Uruguay. The first measure, called the single presentation require- ment , sets forth that tobacco manufacturers may only market one vari- ant of cigarette per brand family. Accordingly, each cigarette brand should have a single presentation, and different packaging or variants for cigarettes may not be sold under a given brand. As a result of this requirement, the Claimants were under obligation to sell just one prod- uct variant under each brand. In the arbitral award 1 , this requirement is illustrated as follows: Prior to this requirement, the Claimants sold multiple product varieties under each brand, such as Marlboro Red, Marlboro Gold, Marlboro Blue and Marlboro Green . With the adoption of the single presenta- tion requirement, the Claimants had to sell only one product variant under each brand, such as Marlboro Red. According to the Claimants, this decreased the value of the company, due to lack of variant sales. It is reported that this regulation caused the Claimants to withdraw seven of their twelve brands from shops in Uruguay 2 . 1 The arbitral award, as well as other documents concerning the arbitration pro- ceedings may be accessed on http://www.italaw.com/. For the arbitral award, please see http://www.italaw.com/sites/default/files/case-documents/italaw7417. pdf. 2 Financial Times article dated July 9, 2016, titled “Uruguay Defeats Philip Mor- ris Test Case Lawsuit”. Source: https://next.ft.com/content/1ae33bc8-454e-11e6- 9b66-0712b3873ae1.