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National Bank of Canada is not investing in the cannabis industry partly due to concerns that tobacco-style lawsuits could be filed against marijuana companies.

“There’s significant risks of class-action lawsuits with respect to the cannabis industry,” said chief executive Louis Vachon during the bank’s annual shareholder meeting on Friday.

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“The tobacco industry operated for 50 years without class action. I think it’s only going to take maybe 50 months or 50 weeks before a significant class action is launched against cannabis producers and contributors,” Vachon said.

He said that National Bank, the sixth-largest bank in the country, was also avoiding investment in the industry due to expectations of ongoing black market competition and concerns about Canadian companies operating in the U.S., where cannabis remains illegal at a federal level.

“There’s significant risk because of the regulatory uncertainty in the United States. It has increased following certain declarations of the Trump administration. We want to be sure that there’s no legal contamination between a Canadian operator or producer and U.S. activities which could have an impact on the bank,” Vachon said.