Legal action threat over plain packaging law
A tobacco manufacturing giant has threatened to take legal action against the standardising of tobacco packaging in England, calling it “a smuggler’s charter”.
The comments from to Japan Tobacco International (JTI) came as MPs voted through a bill on Wednesday introducing plain packs on all cigarette packs and hand-rolling tobacco from May 2016.
The legislation still has to pass through several stages at Westminster before becoming law.
The move came only days after similar legislation was passed in the Republic of Ireland, which became only the second country in the world to introduce the new rules after Australia’s introduction of plain packs in 2012.
Daniel Torras, managing director at JTI UK, said: “This divisive legislation has been rushed through Parliament, with little regard for proper scrutiny and debate.
“Regulators have disregarded the results of public consultations, evidence reviews and impact assessments, not to mention the overlap with other legislation such as the ban on displaying tobacco in shops and the wide-ranging EU Tobacco Products Directive.
“The Government is using the General Election as the finishing line and has hurried this policy along, stifling debate among MPs and giving little opportunity for opposing views to be aired.”
JTI said the law is a “cut-and-paste copycat policy from Australia, where plain packaging has not worked”, and an example of putting politics before process, evidence and debate.
The company said it considered the legislation to be unlawful, and expects to challenge the legislation through the legal channels available to them.
Mr Torras added: “We have repeatedly warned policy-makers that plain packaging is a smugglers’ charter.
“The organized crime gangs behind the global black market in illegal tobacco welcome this legislation, which will provide them with a blue-print for counterfeiting cigarettes.
“Illegal tobacco funds serious crime and terrorism, it steals trade from legal businesses and makes cheap unregulated cigarettes accessible to children.
“The black market is a huge problem and plain packaging will make it much worse.”
