Jump to full article: The Australian (au), 2009-04-18
Author: Siobhain Ryan * April 18, 2009
Intro: ONE of the world's biggest cigarette companies, British American Tobacco, has foreshadowed a High Court challenge if the Rudd Government adopts ambitious anti-smoking measures proposed by its hand-picked health taskforce.
British American Tobacco Australia, alongside Philip Morris, Imperial Tobacco and the US Chamber of Commerce, have launched a stinging attack on a National Preventative Health Taskforce proposal to make Australia the first country in the world to mandate plain packaging for cigarettes.
In submissions to the taskforce's technical papers, published on Wednesday, they warn the proposal to ban company branding on cigarette packs could breach Australian and international law.
BATA said such a prohibition could leave the Government exposed to a lawsuit in the High Court, arguing such an acquisition of property -- including brand logos and pack designs -- on unjust terms would breach the Australian Constitution.
"Attempts to introduce plain packaging into Australia would see BATA take every action necessary to protect its brands and its right to compete as a legitimate commercial business selling a legal product," its submission says. . . .
Stripping the branding, colours and imagery from cigarette packs would "cost the taxpayer nothing and offers the prospect of shattering the image of cigarettes as an ordinary consumer item", the taskforce argued in a technical paper last year. . . .
Brad Huther, the Washington-based senior director of the US Chamber of Commerce, challenged the proposal's "disregard" of established international norms of intellectual property.
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