Plain packs appeal disallowed

All cigarettes in the UK will have to be sold in standardized packaging from next month after the country’s supreme court refused permission for the tobacco industry to appeal against laws requiring the use of such packaging, according to a story by Chris Johnston for The Guardian.

The Department of Health said that following the supreme court’s ruling the industry had no further recourse to domestic legal challenges, meaning that rules governing standardized packaging of cigarettes would come into force on May 20.

The rules requiring standardized tobacco packaging were introduced in May 2016.

Tobacco companies went to the supreme court after the court of appeal in November rejected their attempt to prevent the introduction of standardized tobacco packaging.

British American Tobacco, Imperial Brands, Japan Tobacco International (JTI) and Philip Morris International claimed that the packaging law would infringed their human and intellectual property rights.

The health secretary, Jeremy Hunt, welcomed the supreme court’s decision, saying: “Standardised packaging will cut smoking rates and reduce suffering, disease and avoidable deaths”.

The Guardian story is at: https://www.theguardian.com/society/2017/apr/11/uk-supreme-court-denies-tobacco-firms-permission-for-plain-packaging-appeal.