A group of tobacco firms have lost a United Kingdom court bid to prevent the sale of cigarettes in standardized green packaging.
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Together, British American Tobacco, Philip Morris International, Imperial Tobacco and Japan Tobacco International challenged the government’s decision and the legality of it, of the new standardised packaging rules.
The case was heard in December, but in a ruling on Thursday, Justice Green dismissed all ground of challenge.
The directive also allowed the United Kingdom to go further and introduce its own regulations requiring all tobacco packaging to be uniformly olive green with large images created to act as health warnings. He said: “The regulations were lawful when they were promulgated by Parliament and they are lawful now in the light of the most up-to-date evidence”.
Tobacco companies now need to be granted permission from the U.K. High Court to appeal the judgment.
This will require larger health warnings on the front and back of packets and prohibit slim “lipstick”-style cigarette packs”.
“We will continue to challenge the legality of plain packaging”.
Simon Clark, director of smokers’ group Forest, said: “The judgment is very disappointing”. He said the company has been preparing for plain packaging for three years and is “confident that our brands and product portfolios are well positioned”.
“Plain packaging has nothing to do with health”.
Public-health officials counter that brand identity-which is communicated largely through branded packs-plays a major role in recruiting children and young people as smokers, and that research shows that boring, standardized packs are less attractive to youngsters.
Australia was the first country to make plain packaging compulsory but France and Ireland have also agreed to do so.
Earlier this month, the European Court of Justice (ECJ) ruled that the Tobacco Products Directive, which was adopted in 2014 but has been held up by the challenges, is lawful.
Action on Smoking and Health (Ash) chief executive Deborah Arnott said: “This landmark judgment is a crushing defeat for the tobacco industry and fully justifies the Government’s determination to go ahead with the introduction of standardised packaging”.
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This UK’s legal victory against tobacco giants was a “tremendous victory for public health”, President of the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids (CTFK) Matthew Myers said in a statement.
