Several days ago British American Tobacco (BAT) became the second largest tobacco company to start legal proceedings against Australian laws demanding tobacco products to be sold in olive packages from the next year, following the example of Philip Morris. The laws, adopted by the parliament, are being observed closely by governments thinking about similar actions in Europe, Canada and New Zealand. They have put tobacco companies out of temper who are afraid that their trademark rights can be violated.

BAT stated that the severe world-first laws have to be canceled as the government was violating on the company’s intellectual property and branding without any reasonable compensation. “In case the same legislation was implemented for a fast food chain or some brewing company, then they would be taking the government to court thus we we’re no different,” the company’s Australian representative Scott McIntyre stated in an interview.

McIntyre added that the BAT actions in the High Court, Australia’s supreme judicial body, would be a particular check case on the substantiation of the plain packaging laws to two popular brands in Australia - Winfield and Dunhill. According to the new law, all cigarettes, pipe tobacco and cigars have to be sold in olive packages without any logos but with health graphic warnings, starting from December, 2012. The leading tobacco export countries including Dominican Republic, Ukraine and Nicaragua have cautioned they may also challenge the laws under the world trade regulations. Philip Morris declared it had started international legal proceeding that could require restitutionary claims worth billions of dollars.

Australian Health Minister Nicola Roxon stated that tobacco companies had about a year to prepare for the given law. “It is obvious that cigarette packages remain one of the effective marketing moves for tobacco companies to attract new smokers to their addictive products, but from now on cigarette packages will only be a reminder of the hazardous health effects of smoking,” Roxon declared at the press conference. In 2005, the World Health Organization prompted countries to introduce plain packaging, stating that about 1 billion people are chain smokers, 80 % of whom live in poor countries.

Tobacco industry experts state cigarette companies are afraid that plain packaging could affect important developing markets as Brazil, Russia and Indonesia. Australia plans to reduce the number of people who smoke from about 15 % of the population to 10 % by 2018. Health authorities state smoking kills 15,000 Australians annually, with social and health costs constituting about $32 billion.

Australia’s tobacco market produced total profits of about A$10 billion in 2009, higher from A$8.3 billion in 2008, although smoking has been in decrease. According to estimates, annually about 22 billion cigarettes are sold in the country.

By Sara Norton, Staff Writer. Copyright © 2011 Cigarette-Store.org. All rights reserved.