Plain cigarette packaging
Encyclopedia
Plain cigarette packaging is Australian
legislation
that requires cigarette
s to be sold in plain packages
throughout the country from December 2012. Brand
ing and advertising
will be replaced by logo-free, drab dark brown packaging with health warnings. The brand name and variety of the cigarette will be printed on the front of the packaging in a plain white typeface.
On 24 May 2011 Cancer Council Australia
released a review of the evidence
supporting the introduction of plain packaging to reduce youth uptake. The review had been conducted by Quit Victoria and Cancer Council Victoria
. The review includes 24 peer-reviewed studies conducted over two decades, suggesting that packaging plays an important role in encouraging young people to try cigarettes.
and Imperial Tobacco
formed the Alliance of Australian Retailers, which commenced a multimillion dollar campaign against plain cigarette packaging. The Big Tobacco campaign focused on grassroots
advocacy, ostensibly on behalf of small business owners. When the funding source of the campaign was made public, large retailers such as Coles
and Woolworths quickly withdrew support for the campaign. The tobacco companies subsequently hired a Public Relations
firm to oversee the campaign.
In May 2011, British American Tobacco
launched a media campaign suggesting that illicit trade and crime syndicates would benefit from plain packaging. BATA CEO David Crow threatened to lower cigarette prices in order to compete, which he claimed could result in higher smoking amongst young people. Mr Crow later admitted he would tell his own children not to smoke cigarettes, as they are unhealthy.
The BATA campaign is largely based on a report from Deloitte. Several of the claims contained in the report related to border protection, and have since been publicly refuted by customs officials, and the report itself admitted that it had relied extensively on unaudited figures supplied by the tobacco industry itself.
In June 2011, Imperial Tobacco
Australia launched a secondary media campaign, deriding plain packaging legislation as part of a Nanny state
In June 2011 Phillip Morris International also announced it was using investor state dispute settlement
provisions in the Australia-Hong Kong Biliateral Investment treaty (BIT) to demand compensation for Australia's plain packaging anti-smoking legislation, despite the fact the legislation is non-discriminatory and addresses a significant public health problem. In response, Health Minister Nicola Roxon
stated that she believed the government was "on very strong ground" legally, and that the government was willing to defend the measures.
In November 2011, British American Tobacco announced that it would challenge the laws in the High Court as soon as they gained royal assent. Immediately following the passage of legislation on 21 November 2011, Philip Morris announced it had served a notice of arbitration under Australia's Bilateral Investment Treaty with Hong Kong, seeking the suspension on the plain packaging laws and compensation for the loss of trademarks. Allens Arthur Robinson is representing Philip Morris.
Speaking on Radio Australia, Don Rothwell, professor of international law at the Australian National University, noted that Philip Morris was pursuing multiple legal avenues. The Notice of Arbitration under the bilateral investment treaty between Hong Kong and Australia has a 90 day cooling off period after which the case would most likely be sent to the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes in Washington. He stated that Philip Morris was most likely aiming for the Australian Government to back down, or failing that, to sue for compensation. He said the questions to decide are whether the legislation means that Australia would acquire property by the imposition of these rules and if this legislation is a legitimate public health measure.
Professor Rothwell noted "...the growing recognition of the legitimacy of public health measures of this type." Professor Rothwell estimated that the legal cases, including any case before the High Court, would take up to a year to decide. However, in the United States, Judge Richard J. Leon ruled that graphic health warning labels "clearly display the government’s opinion on smoking" which he said "cannot constitutionally be required to appear on the merchandise of private companies." He ruled that these warnings would unfairly hurt their sales, that the warnings were crafted to provoke an emotional response calculated to quit smoking or never to start smoking. This, the judge ruled, was "an objective wholly apart from disseminating purely factual and uncontroversial information.” This finding may be appealed.
The Associated Press noted that Philip Morris took "less than an hour" to launch legal action against the Australian legislation. It also stated that Australian legislation followed the lead of Uruguay which requires that 80 per cent of cigarette packages is devoted to warnings and Brazil, where cigarette packages display "graphic images" of dead fetuses, haemorrhaging brains and gangrenous feet.
The British "Daily Mail" stated that the Philip Morris law suit could cost the Australian government billions. It also noted that the Australian law is being closely watched by other governments in Europe, Canada and New Zealand, that In 2005 the World Health Organization urged countries to consider plain packaging and that Bhutan had banned the sale of tobacco earlier in 2011.
"3 News", New Zealand reported that New Zealand is actively considering similar plain packaging laws to Australia but that such a law could be a big headache in negotiating a free trade agreement with the United States. Xinhua.net (China) said the New Zealand Associate Health Minister Tariana Turia congratulated the Australian health minister, noted that tobacco labelling rules have long been harmonised between Australia and New Zealand and looked forward to New Zealand following suit.
In reporting Philip Morris's legal action, "The Times of India" noted that the plain packaging legislation is being closely watched by other countries and that tobacco firms are worried the Australian plain packaging legislation may set a global precedent.
. It was suggested the Opposition resistance to the legislation was due to their continuing acceptance of funding donations from tobacco companies.
On 31 May 2011 Liberal
leader Tony Abbott
announced that his party would support the legislation, and would work with the government to ensure the legislation is effective.
Minister Roxon introduced the plain packaging bill to Parliament on 6 July 2011, and it passed through the Lower House
on 24 August 2011. The legislation passed the Upper House
on 10 November 2011 with the amended start date of 1 December 2012. Due to the changed start date the legislation returned to the Lower House before being given royal assent
. Legislation finally passed on 21 November 2011.
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
legislation
Legislation
Legislation is law which has been promulgated by a legislature or other governing body, or the process of making it...
that requires cigarette
Cigarette
A cigarette is a small roll of finely cut tobacco leaves wrapped in a cylinder of thin paper for smoking. The cigarette is ignited at one end and allowed to smoulder; its smoke is inhaled from the other end, which is held in or to the mouth and in some cases a cigarette holder may be used as well...
s to be sold in plain packages
Cigarette pack
A pack or packet of cigarettes is a rectangular container, mostly of paperboard, which contains cigarettes. The pack is designed with a flavor-protective foil, paper or biodegradable plastic, and sealed through a transparent airtight plastic film. By pulling the "pull-tabs", the pack is opened...
throughout the country from December 2012. Brand
Brand
The American Marketing Association defines a brand as a "Name, term, design, symbol, or any other feature that identifies one seller's good or service as distinct from those of other sellers."...
ing and advertising
Advertising
Advertising is a form of communication used to persuade an audience to take some action with respect to products, ideas, or services. Most commonly, the desired result is to drive consumer behavior with respect to a commercial offering, although political and ideological advertising is also common...
will be replaced by logo-free, drab dark brown packaging with health warnings. The brand name and variety of the cigarette will be printed on the front of the packaging in a plain white typeface.
Plain packaging
Instead of their own packaging, the legislation will force cigarette companies to sell their cigarettes in a logo-free drab dark brown packaging from December 2012.. Government research found that brown is the least attractive colour, particularly for young people. With the plain packaging and tax increases the Australian government aims to bring down smoking rates from 16.6 per cent in 2007 to less than 10 per cent by 2018.On 24 May 2011 Cancer Council Australia
Cancer Council Australia
Cancer Council Australia is a national, not for profit organisation which aims to promote cancer-control policies and to reduce the illness caused by cancer in Australia...
released a review of the evidence
Evidence
Evidence in its broadest sense includes everything that is used to determine or demonstrate the truth of an assertion. Giving or procuring evidence is the process of using those things that are either presumed to be true, or were themselves proven via evidence, to demonstrate an assertion's truth...
supporting the introduction of plain packaging to reduce youth uptake. The review had been conducted by Quit Victoria and Cancer Council Victoria
Cancer Council Victoria
Cancer Council Victoria is a not-for-profit organisation which aims to reduce the impact of cancer in Victoria. It is an independent body that advises various groups, including government, on cancer-related issues....
. The review includes 24 peer-reviewed studies conducted over two decades, suggesting that packaging plays an important role in encouraging young people to try cigarettes.
Tobacco industry response
In August 2010, Phillip Morris International, British American TobaccoBritish American Tobacco
British American Tobacco p.l.c. is a global tobacco company headquartered in London, United Kingdom. It is the world’s second largest quoted tobacco company by global market share , with a leading position in more than 50 countries and a presence in more than 180 countries...
and Imperial Tobacco
Imperial Tobacco
Imperial Tobacco is a global tobacco company headquartered in Bristol, United Kingdom. It is the world’s fourth-largest cigarette company measured by market share , and the world's largest producer of cigars, fine-cut tobacco and tobacco papers...
formed the Alliance of Australian Retailers, which commenced a multimillion dollar campaign against plain cigarette packaging. The Big Tobacco campaign focused on grassroots
Grassroots
A grassroots movement is one driven by the politics of a community. The term implies that the creation of the movement and the group supporting it are natural and spontaneous, highlighting the differences between this and a movement that is orchestrated by traditional power structures...
advocacy, ostensibly on behalf of small business owners. When the funding source of the campaign was made public, large retailers such as Coles
Coles
Coles may refer to:Businesses:*Coles Supermarkets, a supermarket chain in Australia*Coles Group, former owner of Coles, Target, Kmart, Harris Technology, Officeworks and many other large chains in Australia....
and Woolworths quickly withdrew support for the campaign. The tobacco companies subsequently hired a Public Relations
Public relations
Public relations is the actions of a corporation, store, government, individual, etc., in promoting goodwill between itself and the public, the community, employees, customers, etc....
firm to oversee the campaign.
In May 2011, British American Tobacco
British American Tobacco
British American Tobacco p.l.c. is a global tobacco company headquartered in London, United Kingdom. It is the world’s second largest quoted tobacco company by global market share , with a leading position in more than 50 countries and a presence in more than 180 countries...
launched a media campaign suggesting that illicit trade and crime syndicates would benefit from plain packaging. BATA CEO David Crow threatened to lower cigarette prices in order to compete, which he claimed could result in higher smoking amongst young people. Mr Crow later admitted he would tell his own children not to smoke cigarettes, as they are unhealthy.
The BATA campaign is largely based on a report from Deloitte. Several of the claims contained in the report related to border protection, and have since been publicly refuted by customs officials, and the report itself admitted that it had relied extensively on unaudited figures supplied by the tobacco industry itself.
In June 2011, Imperial Tobacco
Imperial Tobacco
Imperial Tobacco is a global tobacco company headquartered in Bristol, United Kingdom. It is the world’s fourth-largest cigarette company measured by market share , and the world's largest producer of cigars, fine-cut tobacco and tobacco papers...
Australia launched a secondary media campaign, deriding plain packaging legislation as part of a Nanny state
Nanny state
A nanny state is the perception of a situation characterised by governmental policies of over-protectionism, economic interventionism, or heavy regulation of economic, social or other nature....
In June 2011 Phillip Morris International also announced it was using investor state dispute settlement
Investor state dispute settlement
Investor State Dispute Settlement provisions in international trade treaties grant investors covered by provisions with a right to initiate dispute settlement proceedings against foreign governments in their own right under international law....
provisions in the Australia-Hong Kong Biliateral Investment treaty (BIT) to demand compensation for Australia's plain packaging anti-smoking legislation, despite the fact the legislation is non-discriminatory and addresses a significant public health problem. In response, Health Minister Nicola Roxon
Nicola Roxon
Nicola Louise Roxon is an Australian politician, and is the Minister for Health and Ageing. She has been a Labor member of the Australian House of Representatives since 1998, representing the Division of Gellibrand, in the inner-western suburbs of Melbourne, Victoria.-Early and personal life:She...
stated that she believed the government was "on very strong ground" legally, and that the government was willing to defend the measures.
In November 2011, British American Tobacco announced that it would challenge the laws in the High Court as soon as they gained royal assent. Immediately following the passage of legislation on 21 November 2011, Philip Morris announced it had served a notice of arbitration under Australia's Bilateral Investment Treaty with Hong Kong, seeking the suspension on the plain packaging laws and compensation for the loss of trademarks. Allens Arthur Robinson is representing Philip Morris.
Other responses
The Cancer Council of Australia hailed the passing of the legislation, stating, “Documents obtained from the tobacco industry show how much the tobacco companies rely on pack design to attract new smokers....You only have to look at how desperate the tobacco companies are to stop plain packaging, for confirmation that pack design is seen as critical to sales." The World Health Organization's director for the Western Pacific also congratulated Australia and stated that all countries and areas in the Western Pacific should follow Australia's good example.Speaking on Radio Australia, Don Rothwell, professor of international law at the Australian National University, noted that Philip Morris was pursuing multiple legal avenues. The Notice of Arbitration under the bilateral investment treaty between Hong Kong and Australia has a 90 day cooling off period after which the case would most likely be sent to the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes in Washington. He stated that Philip Morris was most likely aiming for the Australian Government to back down, or failing that, to sue for compensation. He said the questions to decide are whether the legislation means that Australia would acquire property by the imposition of these rules and if this legislation is a legitimate public health measure.
Professor Rothwell noted "...the growing recognition of the legitimacy of public health measures of this type." Professor Rothwell estimated that the legal cases, including any case before the High Court, would take up to a year to decide. However, in the United States, Judge Richard J. Leon ruled that graphic health warning labels "clearly display the government’s opinion on smoking" which he said "cannot constitutionally be required to appear on the merchandise of private companies." He ruled that these warnings would unfairly hurt their sales, that the warnings were crafted to provoke an emotional response calculated to quit smoking or never to start smoking. This, the judge ruled, was "an objective wholly apart from disseminating purely factual and uncontroversial information.” This finding may be appealed.
The Associated Press noted that Philip Morris took "less than an hour" to launch legal action against the Australian legislation. It also stated that Australian legislation followed the lead of Uruguay which requires that 80 per cent of cigarette packages is devoted to warnings and Brazil, where cigarette packages display "graphic images" of dead fetuses, haemorrhaging brains and gangrenous feet.
The British "Daily Mail" stated that the Philip Morris law suit could cost the Australian government billions. It also noted that the Australian law is being closely watched by other governments in Europe, Canada and New Zealand, that In 2005 the World Health Organization urged countries to consider plain packaging and that Bhutan had banned the sale of tobacco earlier in 2011.
"3 News", New Zealand reported that New Zealand is actively considering similar plain packaging laws to Australia but that such a law could be a big headache in negotiating a free trade agreement with the United States. Xinhua.net (China) said the New Zealand Associate Health Minister Tariana Turia congratulated the Australian health minister, noted that tobacco labelling rules have long been harmonised between Australia and New Zealand and looked forward to New Zealand following suit.
In reporting Philip Morris's legal action, "The Times of India" noted that the plain packaging legislation is being closely watched by other countries and that tobacco firms are worried the Australian plain packaging legislation may set a global precedent.
Legislation
In April 2011, Minister Roxon released an exposure draft of plain packaging legislation with an expected start date of 1 July 2012. Australian newspapers reported that the legislation was likely to pass despite concerns from the OppositionCoalition (Australia)
The Coalition in Australian politics refers to a group of centre-right parties that has existed in the form of a coalition agreement since 1922...
. It was suggested the Opposition resistance to the legislation was due to their continuing acceptance of funding donations from tobacco companies.
On 31 May 2011 Liberal
Liberal Party of Australia
The Liberal Party of Australia is an Australian political party.Founded a year after the 1943 federal election to replace the United Australia Party, the centre-right Liberal Party typically competes with the centre-left Australian Labor Party for political office...
leader Tony Abbott
Tony Abbott
Anthony John "Tony" Abbott is the Leader of the Opposition in the Australian House of Representatives and federal leader of the centre-right Liberal Party of Australia. Abbott has represented the seat of Warringah since the 1994 by-election...
announced that his party would support the legislation, and would work with the government to ensure the legislation is effective.
Minister Roxon introduced the plain packaging bill to Parliament on 6 July 2011, and it passed through the Lower House
Australian House of Representatives
The House of Representatives is one of the two houses of the Parliament of Australia; it is the lower house; the upper house is the Senate. Members of Parliament serve for terms of approximately three years....
on 24 August 2011. The legislation passed the Upper House
Australian Senate
The Senate is the upper house of the bicameral Parliament of Australia, the lower house being the House of Representatives. Senators are popularly elected under a system of proportional representation. Senators are elected for a term that is usually six years; after a double dissolution, however,...
on 10 November 2011 with the amended start date of 1 December 2012. Due to the changed start date the legislation returned to the Lower House before being given royal assent
Royal Assent
The granting of royal assent refers to the method by which any constitutional monarch formally approves and promulgates an act of his or her nation's parliament, thus making it a law...
. Legislation finally passed on 21 November 2011.