Gyeonggi Province said it will file a damages suit against KT&G, demanding the nation's largest tobacco company be held accountable for losses from fires started by cigarettes.

Gyeonggi plans to file the suit by the end of December, the first of its kind in Korea, reported the Korea Times. Choi Jin-jong, an official from the province, said the suit will demand that KT&G pay KRW 79 billion (EUR 43.7 million) in damages to compensate for some of the expenses the province paid for operations to extinguish fires caused by cigarettes.
"Like any other manufacturer, KT&G is obliged to remove any danger from its products. But it has neglected its duty so far," Choi told reporters. He said that the company had been exporting cigarettes to the US since 2005 which have devices to extinguish butts, but that it would not have sold these cigarettes in South Korea.
He said the damages were calculated after the KT&G's domestic market share of nearly 70 per cent had been reflected. (pi)