Big Tobacco to take on plain packaging in court

A battle of two Goliaths is due to take place this week, as Big Tobacco takes on Westminster and its proposed plain packaging law.

The regulation, which would come into force in May 2016, would see the ubiquitous shelves of colourful cigarette brands replaced with graphic pictorial health warnings and no logos.

Imperial Tobacco, Philip Morris International, British American Tobacco and Japan Tobacco will argue, in a six day hearing starting Thursday 10 December, that the ban on logos and branding will infringe on their intellectual property rights.

Gradual bans on advertising and sponsorship have relegated cigarette branding to corner shop cupboards in recent years, and the companies contend removing logos from packaging will destroy the value of those brands.

"Tobacco companies are really worried. They're aware that they're about to lose the last communication tool they have", City Law School senior lecturer Enrico Bonadio told Bloomberg.

Similar laws were implemented by Australia's federal government in 2012. Big Tobacco sued in that case too, and the country's High Court agreed the law did breach intellectual property rights.

However, the legislation was upheld as the Australian government was found not to have received any benefit from taking away the intellectual property of the companies.

At the time, Australia's public smoking cessation service Quitline reported smokers as complaining that plain-packaged cigarettes tasted "different, or worse". The smoking rate in Australia has reduced by 1.5% since 2012, though British American Tobacco maintains this was due to other factors.

"The UK government made a serious error of judgment by failing to properly take into account the Australian government's own data, which shows that plain packaging is not achieving its public health objectives", a British American spokesperson told Bloomberg.

It's understood the tobacco companies will argue that the legislation is a breach of European intellectual property laws and community trademark regulations, and separately that plain packaging is a disproportionate measure.

They will only need to convince the judge on one of the points to succeed.

The plain packaging law, which was introduced by the coalition government and passed in the House of Commons by 367 votes to 113 in March 2015, is the latest in a series of public health measures against smoking in the UK.

Newspaper and billboard advertisements were banned in 2003, the minimum age to which tobacco can be sold was raised from 16 to 18 in 2007, and shops were ordered to hide their tobacco displays behind cupboard doors in 2012.

The court action in London this week isn't the last in Big Tobacco's arsenal. Earlier this year, they challenged the EU's updated Tobacco Products Directive in Luxembourg.

If successful, the challenge would also render the UK's plain packaging unlawful.