British Tobacco Companies File Objections Against Packaging Restrictions
LONDON, May 23 (UPI) — Two of the world’s biggest tobacco companies are suing the British government for plain packaging regulations due to go into effect in May 2016.
British American Tobacco and Philip Morris International have challenged the restrictions at London’s High Court Friday, BBC reports. The companies claim the regulation directly impacts their trademarks.
“We respect the government’s authority to regulate in the public interest, but wiping out trademarks simply goes too far,” said Philip Morris senior vice-president Marc Firestone. According to the tobacco giants, the regulations break EU law.
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The regulation will force cigarette companies to package their products in bland, uniform packages displaying health warnings and grotesque pictures of disease instead of longstanding logos.
The New York Times observes that when enacted, the regulation would be the first among the European Union’s 28 countries to crack down on cigarette and tobacco packaging.
The U.K. Department of Health says it “will not allow public health policy to be held to ransom by the tobacco industry.”
“Smoking is the biggest preventable cause of death in England, killing 80,000 people every year. We would not have gone ahead with standardised packaging unless we had considered it to be defensible in the courts,” a department spokesperson said told BBC.
Many international tobacco companies have expressed their concern about the regulations. Imperial Tobacco said in March that it will “be left with no choice” but to challenge the regulations in the British courts. If their legal challenge is successful, tobacco companies may receive a hefty payout from the government for a policy they claim breaks intellectual property law.
