Europe's top court has cleared the way for plain packaging laws
The ECJ also approved a ban on menthol and other flavoured cigarettes.
EUROPE’S HIGHEST COURT has declared legal a raft of changes to how cigarettes should be presented and sold, clearing the way for plain packaging laws to be introduced.
Big tobacco firms including Philip Morris and British American Tobacco challenged new EU-wide rules, which were rolled out in 2014, that forced them to cover cigarette packets with graphic pictures and warnings.
The companies had earlier claimed plain packaging measures being introduced in the UK went against their intellectual property rights and weren’t effective in reducing smoking rates.
But the European Court of Justice (ECJ) today backed the EU’s policy that cigarette packaging shouldn’t “promote a tobacco product or encourage its consumption”.
Ireland announced plans to become the first country in the EU to introduce plain packaging laws in 2014 and the rules are expected to be rolled out soon when a new government is formed.
Australia introduced similar measures in late 2012, while the British government voted in favour of plain-packaging regulations in March last year.
Protecting consumers
In its ruling, the ECJ said plain packaging could be used to “protect consumers” against the risks associated with tobacco use and didn’t go further than was needed to support a goal of reducing smoking rates.
It added that rules which specified at least 65% of the space on cigarette packet covers carry health warnings and graphic deterrents “did not go beyond the limits of what is appropriate and necessary” to deter smoking.
The ECJ also delivered judgments on two other cases relating to the EU directive on tobacco products, throwing out challenges from Poland and Romania to an EU-wide ban on menthol-flavoured cigarettes.
As part of the European regulations, all non-tobacco flavours are outlawed in both cigarettes and other tobacco products.
“Menthol, by its pleasant flavour, makes tobacco products more attractive to consumers and … reducing the attractiveness of those products may contribute to reducing the prevalence of tobacco use and dependence among new and continuing users,” the court said.
Rules on electronic cigarettes were also upheld, including an effective ban on e-cigarette advertising and a cap on the maximum amount of nicotine allowed in liquids at 20mg per ml.
Most of the new rules were intended to start in the first half of this year, however a phase-out period of four years is allowed for certain existing products like menthol cigarettes.
- With AFP
