Challenges to Tobacco Products Directive fail
So the European Court of Justice has ruled that the EU's Tobacco Products Directive is lawful.
The BBC has the story here:
Click here to read the ECJ press release.
[Update: The Press Association also has a report, with a quote from Forest.]
Elements of the directive were challenged by tobacco manufacturers, an e-cigarette company and even the Polish government, supported by Romania.
The new measures will be implemented across the EU from May 20 although manufacturers and retailers have a year in which to comply.
Consumers will notice larger health warnings. Smaller pouches of RYO tobacco will disappear together with all packs that contain fewer than 20 cigarettes. From 2020 menthol cigarettes will also be prohibited.
E-cigarettes will also be hit with restrictions on tanks and e-liquids and a ban on advertising.
Forest's response reads:
"The Tobacco Products Directive treats adult consumers like children.
"Smokers know the health risks and they have a right to buy and consume tobacco without excessive regulations that are designed to stigmatise both the product and the user and reduce consumer choice."
"The implementation of the Tobacco Products Directive highlights the way the European Union imposes measures on member states with little or no public debate and very little scrutiny by national parliaments.
"Consumer rights have been sacrificed by unelected officials in Brussels supported by a compliant government in Westminster."
The TPD also allows individual member states to devise their own packaging rules, hence the introduction (subject to a legal challenge) of plain packaging in the UK.
Later today I'll have news of a special event to mark that very issue. Watch this space.