Category: Packaging

U.K. Tobacco Sales Down After Plain Packs

Photo: Marc Bruxelle | Dreamstime.com
Cigarette sales have fallen by about 20 million a month in the U.K. since plain packaging rules have been in effect, reports The Guardian, citing a new study.
“The underlying rate of decline in tobacco sales almost doubled after these policies were implemented,” said Anna Gilmore, director of the Tobacco Control Research Group (TCRG).
Before plain packaging rules were implemented in 2017, cigarette sales were falling by about 12 million a month, according to the TCRG.
“Governments around the world considering plain packaging can be reassured that this policy works and that the real reason the industry opposes this legislation so vehemently is because it threatens its profitability,” said Gilmore. “With coronavirus already posing a threat to tobacco company sales and plain packaging of tobacco taking off in other jurisdictions, our findings are more bad news for tobacco companies.”
The tobacco industry’s net revenue fell 13 percent, from £231 million ($291.9 million) to £198 million a month, after the implementation of the plain packaging rules.
The study was funded by Cancer Research U.K. and the British Heart Foundation.
July 13, 2020
Court Strikes Warnings for Pipes and Cigars

Photo: Tobacco Reporter archive
A U.S. federal appeals court has ruled that the U.S. Food & Drug Administration (FDA) cannot require warning labels for cigar or pipe tobacco products, reports Halfwheel.
In a unanimous ruling, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit decided in favor of the plaintiffs in a case brought by the Cigar Association of America and others against the FDA.
Judge Gregory Katsas wrote that the FDA failed to produce evidence that the warning labels would reduce the number of smokers.
“The Deeming Rule does not consider the impact of health warnings on smoking cessation and adoption rates,” he said. “In fact, the rule scrupulously avoids the issue, and the FDA rarely even contenders otherwise. Instead, the FDA candidly acknowledged that ‘[r]eliable evidence on the impacts of warning labels … on users of cigars [and] pipe tobacco … does not, to our knowledge, exist.’”
Earlier this year, a U.S. District Court ruled that FDA could not require warning labels on premium cigars. The most recent decision throws out the district court ruling and modifies it to include all cigars and pipe tobacco products.
July 8, 2020
Singapore Enacts Plain Packaging Law

Photo: PixaBay
Cigarette manufacturers operating in Singapore will be required to sell their products in standardized packaging starting July 1, reports The Straits Times.
The new rule, which also mandates enlarged graphic health warnings, will apply to all tobacco products, including cigarettes, cigarillos, cigars, bidis and roll-your-own tobacco products, according to the Ministry of Health (MOH).
Announced on Oct 31, 2018, the measures are intended to encourage smokers to quit and discourage nonsmokers from picking up the habit.
As part of the new regulations, tobacco companies will have to remove from their product packaging all logos, colors, images and promotional information.
The graphic health warnings must cover at least 75 percent of surfaces, up from the current 50 percent.
Non-compliance is punishable with a fine of up to SGD10,000 ($7,171), jail of up to six months, or both, for first-time offenders.
Those with a prior qualifying conviction will face heavier penalties.
The government of Singapore had given tobacco manufacturers, importers, wholesalers and retailers a year to prepare for the new measures.
The Health Sciences Authority also sent letters and e-mails to remind tobacco licensees of the new packaging regulations.
June 29, 2020
AR Packaging Consolidates Brands

Harald Schulz, CEO of AR Packaging
AR Packaging is incorporating all its brands under the AR Packaging identity.

The seven brands now becoming one are AR Packaging, A&R Carton, Flextrus, CC Pack, SP Containers, Maju Jaya and AR Packaging Digital. The four recently acquired brands Nampak Carton Nigeria, K+D, RLC Packaging and BSC Drukarnia Opakowan will also be incorporated under the new name.

According to AR Packaging, the move is in line with its corporate strategy as the company prepares for further growth organically and through acquisitions.

AR Packaging group of companies is one of Europe’s leading manufacturers in the packaging sector with net sales of more than €900 million ($1.02 billion) and factories in 13 countries.
June 23, 2020
South Korea to ‘Refresh’ Tobacco Health Warnings

Photo: KT&G
South Korea will introduce new graphic warning images this year, reports the Yonhap News Agency.

Of the 12 photos currently used on cigarette packs, nine will be replaced with new images starting Dec. 23, the Ministry of Health and Welfare said.

The new images will highlight the greater chances of smokers contracting lung and oral cancer, heart disease, stroke and early death, as well as the dangers of secondhand smoking and smoking during pregnancy.

Warning images showcasing the heightened risk of laryngeal cancer, sexual dysfunction and dangers posed by electronic cigarettes will be retained as they have been shown to be effective in enhancing risk awareness, according to the ministry.

South Korea’s rules require 75 percent of a cigarette pack to be covered in warning images and text. Images must account for 55 percent of the packs with both the front and back required to show graphic pictures. These images need to be revised every 24 months.
June 22, 2020
Australia’s Plain Packaging Justified, Says WTO

Photo: Taco Tuinstra
The World Trade Organization (WTO) ruled on Tuesday that Australia’s plain packaging laws are justified, rejecting complaints by Honduras and the Dominican Republic that they are unfair restrictions on trade.
In December 2012, Australia became the first country to require tobacco companies to strip their products of all branding. Cigarettes have since been sold in drab, brown packs with large graphic health warnings but no logos or other distinguishing features. Brand names are printed in generic fonts.
Following the introduction of the measure, Cuba, the Dominican Republic, Honduras and Indonesia—all major tobacco-producing countries—challenged Australia’s measure at the WTO.
The complainants argued that Australia’s Tobacco Plain Packaging Act constituted an unjustified barrier to trade, but the WTO panel found Australia’s measures were not more restrictive than was necessary to achieve the public health goal of reducing smoking.
Honduras and the Dominican Republic appealed against the panel’s findings.
The World Health Organization’s (WTO) appellate body said on Tuesday that it had found no errors in the earlier panel’s conclusions and that it rejected the complainants’ request for Australia to change its packaging rules.
Anti-tobacco activists welcomed the WTO verdict. “This ruling is yet another victory for Australia and global health and a resounding defeat for the tobacco industry, which has fiercely fought plain packaging laws,” said Matthew L. Myers, president of the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids. “This ruling puts to rest any remaining questions about plain packaging under international trade law.”
Myers also suggested that the plaintiffs received technical and financial support from British American Tobacco (BAT) and Philip Morris International to bring their complaints.
The tobacco industry has long argued that plain packaging is an ineffective and disproportionate measure.
“Naturally, we are disappointed with the ultimate findings of the report,” said a spokesperson for BAT, which was not part of the case. “However, it is important to note that decisions from the WTO panel or appellate body do not set a global precedent when it comes to this measure and will only be binding to the parties involved in this dispute.”
BAT also noted that the report is not an endorsement on the effectiveness of plain packaging. “The appellate body actually dismissed the panel’s finding that plain packaging reduced the consumption of tobacco products,” the company wrote in a statement.
Plain packaging is now required in at least 15 countries, and many other governments are in the process of formally considering the policy.
Tuesday’s ruling was the last by the WTO’s appellate body, which serves as a supreme court in international trade disputes but has ceased to function after the United States blocked new appointments. The result is that the Geneva-based WTO can no longer effectively intervene to settle disputes.
June 10, 2020
New Leadership at Beumer Corp.

Joseph Dzierzawski
Joseph Dzierzawski has been named president and CEO of Beumer Corp., the U.S. subsidiary of the Beumer Group in Somerset, New Jersey, USA, effective April 27, 2020. He will be responsible for the business lines conveying and loading systems, palletizing and packaging technology, and sortation and distribution systems in the North American market.
With a degree in metallurgical engineering, he previously served at a German system supplier for the metallurgy industry. He then joined an international engineering and management consulting company, where he served as global director of technology and business development.
With annual sales of about €950 million ($1.07 billion) the Beumer Group employs 4,500 employees worldwide.
June 5, 2020
Health Labels Planned for October 2021

Image: FDA
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has set Oct. 16, 2021, as the new effective date for graphic health warning labels for combustible cigarettes.
The FDA signed off March 18 on a new set of 11 graphic warning labels for traditional cigarettes that are toned down considerably from its first attempt in 2012, which was abandoned after an industry legal challenge.
The new set of warnings contains images of diseased lungs, a man experiencing erectile dysfunction, a man with surgical stitches from heart or lung surgery and a child with an oxygen mask. But there is no smoke coming out of a tracheal hole, no cadaver and no photo of a man who appears deathly ill, as the FDA proposed.
The labels must cover the top 50 percent of the front and rear panels of packages, as well as at least 20 percent of the top of advertisements. The messages must be randomly and equally displayed and distributed on cigarette packages and rotated quarterly in cigarette advertisements.
The warnings were mandated by a federal judge for cigarette packaging and marketing. The ruling does not affect other tobacco products, such as electronic cigarettes.
Initially, the agency set a deadline for June 18, 2021. However, on April 3, Philip Morris USA, R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co., ITG Brands and Liggett Group filed a joint motion requesting a preliminary injunction on implementing the labels and a ruling to prohibit enforcement. The manufacturers insist that the labels violate the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, which guarantees free speech.
On May 8, the FDA and the manufacturers filed a joint motion to extend the deadline by 120 days. The manufacturers said the pandemic has complicated their ability to meet the June 18, 2021, deadline.
Despite the postponement of the deadline, the FDA urged manufacturers to submit plans for compliance as soon as possible.
“Early submission will facilitate timely FDA review of plans prior to the effective date of the required warnings, encourage dialogue with entities regarding any implementation concerns, and provide time to consider proposals by entities in a timely manner,” the FDA said.
May 29, 2020
Pakistan Court Cancels Track-And-Trace Contract

Photo: Taco Tuinstra
A court in Pakistan canceled a multi-million dollar track-and-trace contract for tobacco products after complaints that the company awarded the contract was given undue preferential treatment.
The National Radio and Telecommunication Corp. (NRTC) was awarded the contract after submitting a very low bid. The bid was apparently in error, and the NRTC was allowed to correct the bid before the contract was awarded. According to the rules, the contract should have been awarded to the next lowest bidder following the error.
“If modifications in financial bids are allowed after the results of the bidding were made known … it would afford a pretext for unscrupulous bidders to prey on the public,” the judge stated in his decision.
May 14, 2020
Philip Morris Challenges Health Warnings

Image by jessica45 from Pixabay
Philip Morris USA filed a lawsuit on May 6 in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia to block the graphic cigarette warnings that tobacco companies will be required to print on their products in the United States starting June 18, 2021.
It follows a similar lawsuit filed last month by other tobacco companies in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas.
This is the Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) second attempt to enact graphic health warnings under the 2009 Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act. The first rule was struck down by the federal court in the District of Columbia as a violation of the First Amendment. The plaintiffs in Texas case state that this version of the FDA’s rule is no improvement and urge the court to strike down both the rule and the Tobacco Control Act’s graphic-warnings requirement as violations of the First Amendment.
The companies allege that FDA’s required warnings force plaintiffs to become a “mouthpiece for the government’s anti-smoking advocacy” and are “precisely the type of compelled speech that the First Amendment prohibits.”
The new rule includes 11 graphic images paired with textual warnings. Among other smoking-related afflictions, the images depict a person with neck cancer, ill children and bloody urine
Also on May 6, the plaintiffs and the government in the Texas case jointly proposed to delay the implementation date for the graphic warnings for four months, from June 18, 2021, to Oct. 16, 2021.
Public health advocates expressed outrage at the legal challenge. “It is truly shameless for tobacco companies to file these lawsuits at a time when there is clear evidence that smoking can increase risk of severe complications and even death from Covid-19,” said Matthew L. Myers, president of the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids.
“We urge the Administration to vigorously defend these warnings in court and urge the court to reject the proposed four-month delay.”
May 8, 2020