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Nike loses 'Free speech' defense

category national | miscellaneous | news report author Saturday May 04, 2002 18:09author by Phuq Hedd - On my tod

Red flag raised on greenwash

California Supreme Court has ruled that companies cannot lie about their human rights record and defend that misrepresentation as Free Speech.

Nike was caught redhanded selecting between
http://www.corpwatch.org/news/PND.jsp?articleid=156
favourable and unfavourable reports commissioned by outside auditors on their worker's health in 1997. One of the unfavourable reports was leaked and a lawsuit was taken against Nike for "false advertising". Nike defended itself using a 1st-Amendement/Free-Speech argument. California Supreme Court has ruled that commercial lying is NOT protected by the 1st Amendment
http://www.law.com/cgi-bin/gx.cgi/AppLogic+FTContentServer?pagename=law/View&c=Article&cid=ZZZX82MCR0D&live=true&cst=1&pc=0&pa=0
This should put a break on corporate dis-information campaigns.

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Case
author by Daithipublication date Sat May 04, 2002 18:31author email macsithd at tcd dot ieauthor address author phone

If anyone's interested, you can read the whole thing at the following address (PDF)

http://caselaw.findlaw.com/data2/californiastatecases/s087859.pdf

Related Link: http://caselaw.findlaw.com/data2/californiastatecases/s087859.pdf
http://www.indymedia.ie/article/3131

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