17.08.2012
The Supreme Court of Australia supported the law obliging dealers to sell cigarettes of all brands in similar packages. Since 1 December all tobacco companies are to sell their products in Australia in identical dark brown packages without any logotype. Similar type will be used for identification of the brand name, and 70% of the front side of the package and 90% of the backside of the package will be occupied by graphic presentation of medical consequences of smoking.
Several tobacco manufacturers opposed this act insisting that it violates their right to intellectual property; however, the court found their claims groundless and irrelevant.
A number of experts suppose that other countries will follow the example of Australia in their struggle against the tobacco lobbies. The authorities of Great Britain, Canada and New Zealand are drafting similar law projects.
Whose interests the initiative pursues – people’s ones or small tobacco companies’, unable to compete openly with large manufacturers - is a question. At present, the volume of the Australian black market of tobacco is as big as 13.4%. Experts forecast its expansion.
