Australia Upholds Plain Cigarette Pack Law

An Australian court upheld a law that would make cigarette packages a drab olive green color and not feature any colorful logos or other branding, but will instead show gruesome images with cancerous mouths, sick children, and other graphic health warnings.

The law, which was approved last year by the Australian Parliament, forces cigarette companies to use the packages and only place their brand names in a standardized font, size, and position.

Some of the images include blackened lungs, a clogged artery, a mouth with yellowish-back teeth, and an eye that is being held open in a manner similar to a scene out of the 1971 film “A Clockwork Orange,” with the lettering: “Smoking causes blindness.”

The court was responding to a challenge brought against Australia by global tobacco companies, including British American Tobacco, Japan Tobacco, and Philip Morris, who claimed that the packages and graphic images and warnings would hurt sales. They also contended the law would affect their trademark without proper compensation from the government.

The High Court, however, upheld the Parliament’s law in a move that Australian Health Minister Tanya Plibersek said “is a victory for all those families who have lost someone to a tobacco related illness,” according to a release. “For anyone who has ever lost someone, this is for you.”

“Plain packaging is a vital preventative public health measure, which removes the last way for big tobacco to promote its deadly products. Over the past two decades, more than 24 different studies have backed plain packaging, and now it will finally become a reality,” Plibersek said.

But British American Tobacco, one of the plaintiffs in the case, called it “a bad piece of law” and also “one that will have many unintended consequences for years to come,” according to a statement released after the decision.

“In fact, plain packaging would only exacerbate an already significant illicit tobacco trafficking problem, and would have other significant adverse unintended consequences including driving down prices which would lead to increased smoking while reducing government tax revenue,” the company said.

The U.K., Canada, France, India, New Zealand and other countries are aiming for similar regulations on cigarette packages in the hopes that it will deter citizens from picking up smoking or help them quit. 

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration came up with a law in 2011 that would place graphic images on cigarette packages, but that was struck down in February by a district court judge, who said the move was unconstitutional.

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