Big Tobacco Against Cigarettes Ads Ban

Big Tobacco is fighting a multi-pronged battle to defeat a global wave of laws to force them to use graphic warning labels and plain packaging. It has won a major legal battle in the U.S. this month but it has lost in Australia. Some eight million U.S. citizens are estimated to suffer from tobacco-related diseases and as many as 450,000 are believed to be killed by such diseases each year. In Australia over 15,000 people are estimated to have died from smoking related diseases in a single year. (roughly half the U.S. rate, possibly a result of higher prices) The U.S. Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act was passed in June 2009 and would have taken effect on October 22, 2012. Tobacco companies were required to cover the top half of both the front and back of all cigarette packets with graphic warnings. The top 30 percent of all cigarette advertisements were required to be covered up in a similar fashion. The FDA required companies to publish warnings from a series of advertisements that included pictures of a man with a hole in his throat, lungs stuffed with cigarettes and a dead body. On the other side of the world, the Plain Packaging Act was enacted into Australian law in November 2011 could go ahead ordering the companies to use dull green standardized packaging with graphic warnings covering 75 percent of the front and 90 percent of the back of cigarette packets. The Australian high court was circumspect in supporting the anti-tobacco legislation. "At least a majority of the court is of the opinion that the Act is not contrary to (Australia's constitution)," it ruled in a very brief statement on August 15. The ruling defeated a challenge from British American Tobacco (makers of Dunhill and Lucky Strike), Imperial Tobacco (manufacturers of Gauloises), Japan Tobacco (makers of Mild Seven) and Philip Morris (manufacturers of Marlboro) who argued that the act reduced the value of their brands and trademarks and infringed on their intellectual property rights. U.S. courts ruled the other way, saying that the law violated free speech rights, in favor of a challenge brought by R.J. Reynolds (makers of Camel, Kool and Winston) Lorillard (manufacturers of Newport and Kent), and the Liggett Group (former makers of Chesterfield and Lark). "This case raises novel questions about the scope of the government's authority to force the manufacturer of a product to go beyond making purely factual and accurate commercial disclosures and undermine its own economic interest,” wrote U.S. judge Janice Brown in her ruling for the U.S. federal court of appeals in favor of the tobacco companies on August 24.