Uruguay has defeated Philip Morris, the global tobacco giant, in a major international lawsuit over the country's tough anti-smoking regulations. The Swiss-based company sued Uruguay at the World Bank’s International Center for Settlement of Investment Dispute under the terms of a 1991 bilateral investment treaty between Uruguay and Switzerland.

Philip Morris...has been waging an aggressive battle around the world against national laws requiring tobacco companies to print graphic warnings about the health impacts of smoking. So far it has lost lawsuits in courts in Australia, Norway, Thailand and the UK.

On March 26, 2010, Philip Morris filed a complaint against Uruguay at the World Bank arbitration tribunal. The action was intended to escalate the fight to an international level and to take advantage of trade laws that typically favor major corporations by allowing them to claim damages from laws that deny them profits from their investments.

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"It is not acceptable to prioritize commercial considerations over the fundamental right to health and life," Uruguay’s President Tabaré Vázquez announced in a victory speech to his citizens. "The health measures that we have imposed to control tobacco and protect the health of our people have been recognized as legitimate and adopted as a sovereign function of our republic."