Plain cigarette packets legal, European court rules

LONDON

Cigarette packaging will be standardized across the European Union after the bloc’s highest court rejected an attempt by tobacco companies to block the law.

The European Court of Justice in Luxembourg ruled on Wednesday that restrictions on advertising electronic cigarettes across the EU will also come into force.

Three EU member states -- Britain, France and Ireland -- have passed their own laws requiring plain tobacco packaging, meaning manufacturers must print product brand names in a mandated font, size and color. The laws take effect later this month.

The European rules had been challenged by tobacco giants Philip Morris International and British American Tobacco, which argued the EU was imposing into laws that should be set by member states.

According to an official statement, the court ruled that “in providing that each unit packet and the outside packaging must carry health warnings taking the form of a message and a color photograph, which cover 65 percent of the external front and back surface of each unit packet, the EU legislature did not go beyond the limits of what is appropriate and necessary.”

The ruling will allow other EU countries to implement similar laws.

Forest, a pro-smoking group in the U.K., said it was disappointed with the ruling.

The group’s Director Simon Clark said: “The Tobacco Products Directive treats adult consumers like children.

“Smokers know the health risks and they have a right to buy and consume tobacco without excessive regulations that are designed to stigmatize both the product and the user and reduce consumer choice.”

According to the Forest’s official website, most of the group’s funding comes through what it calls donations by U.K.-based tobacco companies.

Meanwhile, the U.K.-based public health group, Action on Smoking and Health, welcomed the court’s decision.

In a statement, the group’s Chief Executive Deborah Arnott said: “The European Court of Justice decision is welcome if not surprising: the [EU Tobacco Products] Directive is lawful and the U.K. is allowed to go further than the Directive in standardizing tobacco packs with respect to matters not harmonized by the Directive.

“We await the U.K. court judgment, which is expected shortly, but we expect that the court will also confirm that the introduction of standardized packaging in the U.K. is lawful. From May 20, all packs manufactured for sale in the U.K. will have to be plain, standardized in the same drab green color with the product name on the pack in a standard font.”