EU countries waiting on Australian tobacco packs verdicts

If Australia wins the international litigation on plain packaging of cigarettes, countries of the EU will probably follow its example, according to a Baltic Business Daily story quoting European Commissioner for Health Tonio Borg.

“I believe that, if Australia wins the international litigation, more European states will declare their intention to introduce plain packaging,” Borg said after a meeting of EU health ministers in Vilnius, Lithuania.

There was no mention of what Borg thought would happen if Australia lost the litigation, or, indeed, if standardized packaging proved ineffective.

Since Dec. 1, Australia has required that all tobacco products be sold in packaging designed on behalf of the government to be as ugly as possible. Packs are hugely dominated by graphic health warnings, are otherwise a standard olive color, have no logos or other design features, and have brand and variant names in a standardized font and position.

Tobacco manufacturers have filed a number of complaints against Australia.

Among EU countries, Ireland is the only one to have announced its intention to follow the Australian example.