Finland ministry wants no brand identities

Finland’s Ministry of Social Affairs and Health would like tobacco packs to have no brand information on them at all, according to an Esmerk Finnish News story quoting an unnamed newspaper report.

Such a proposal goes further than do the proposed revisions to the EU’s Tobacco Products Directive put forward by the Commission in December, and further even than the standardized tobacco package regulations imposed in Australia.

It is perhaps in line with a proposal put forward in Turkey some time ago whereby cigarette packs would have been identified at retail only by numbers that could be decoded by those with access to a list matching the numbers with the brand names.