Tobacco industry fails in last appeal against plain packaging

The tobacco industry has exhausted legal avenues to overturn plain packaging laws after being refused permission to appeal to the UK Supreme Court, The Guardian reports.

The legal defeat paves the way for UK-wide plain packaging rules for cigarettes and tobacco products to become fully legally enforced on 20 May 2017.

Brand-less cigarette packs have been on sale since May 2016, but a one-year grace period allowed for companies to clear existing stock.

British American Tobacco, Imperial Brands, Japan Tobacco International (JTI) and Philip Morris International have been arguing the policy infringes their human and intellectual property rights.

However, the Supreme Court, in its latest decision, said their appeal did not “raise a point of law of general public importance which ought to be considered at this time, bearing in mind that the case has already been the subject of judicial decision and reviewed on appeal”.

UK Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt, welcoming the Supreme Court’s decision, said: “Standardised packaging will cut smoking rates and reduce suffering, disease and avoidable deaths.”