Merck not alone in class actions

High-profile cases: Merck is not the only company involved in potentially multibillion dollar class-action suits.

Here are some other high-profile cases:

* More than 700,000 Florida residents suffering from smoking- related illnesses sued five large cigarette-makers in 2000 and were awarded punitive damages by a jury in the Florida Supreme Court totalling $145 billion. The five firms involved - Philip Morris, RJ Reynolds, Loews unit Lorillard Tobacco, Brown & Williamson, which is owned by British American Tobacco, and Liggett, which is part of Vector Group - appealed the award and had the level of damages reduced.

* Philip Morris won an appeal in December 2005 in the Illinois Supreme Court against a $10.1 billion class-action suit. The plaintiffs had accused the company in 2003 of marketing light cigarettes as less harmful than regular ones.

* Walmart faces a massive federal class action involving over 1.5 million current and former female employees who allege sexual discrimination. The issue of whether class-action status will be granted is on appeal in California.

* WorldCom investors managed to secure more than $6 billion from companies that were involved in the collapse of the bankruptcy of the telecoms giant following a class-action suit. One of these companies, Citigroup, paid $2.65 billion to the class- action group. Citigroup also agreed to pay $2 billion to Enron investors.

* Microsoft has paid out more than $1.8 billion to settle state-level antitrust suits in America.

* And Lucent has paid more than $500 million in cash and securities to shareholders following a Securities and Exchange Commission investigation.