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Tag: Uruguay

  • Judge Halts Corporate Communications Decree

    Judge Halts Corporate Communications Decree

    Photo: Tobacco Reporter archive

    A court in Uruguay has issued an injunction preventing the implementation of a decree that would have allowed tobacco companies to print information on cigarette sticks and to include inserts in tobacco packs.

    Public health campaigners had criticized the decree as undermining Uruguay’s plain tobacco packaging law.

    After President Lacalle Pou issued the decree, health campaigners filed a constitutional lawsuit to reverse it. The judge ruled that the decree jeopardized children’s rights and infringed on Uruguay’s international obligations to health and human rights laws.

    Anti-smoking activists welcomed the ruling. “We applaud the tireless advocates in Uruguay who fought this measure in court and won,” wrote Matthew L. Myers, president of the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, in a statement.

    “While the Lacalle Pou administration has shown an alarming willingness to cave to the interests of Big Tobacco, the public health community in Uruguay remains a steadfast guardian of the country’s renowned tobacco control laws.

    “Uruguay’s actions should serve as a reminder to advocates and governments around the world to be ever vigilant of Big Tobacco companies as they seek to undo decades of progress in driving down rates of tobacco use.”

  • Outrage About Inserts

    Outrage About Inserts

    Photo: Valeri Vatel

    Anti-tobacco activists are outraged about a recent government decree in Uruguay that allows cigarette manufacturers to print information on cigarette sticks and include inserts in tobacco packs.

    In 2019, Uruguay became the first country in Latin America to require plain packaging of tobacco products. Pioneered in Australia, plain packaging requires that tobacco packs have a uniform color and texture and prohibits any branding, logos or other promotional elements inside or attached to tobacco products.

    The measure is meant to reduce the attractiveness and appeal of tobacco products and increase the noticeability of health warnings.

    According to the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids (CTFK), the recent government decision allows tobacco companies to market their products in ways the plain packaging legislation was designed to prevent.

    “The government has put the interests of the tobacco industry ahead of the health of all Uruguayans,” wrote CTFK President Matthew Myers in a statement, adding that it is not the first time that President Lacalle Pou’s administration “capitulated” to the tobacco industry.

    Prior to the administration’s decision on plain packaging, the government reversed a decree that had banned the sale of tobacco-heating products like IQOS and Glo.