Tobacco Plain Packaging Gains Ground As France Introduces Draft Bill

French Minister for Social Affairs, Health and Rights of Women Marisol Touraine today announced a national programme to reduce tobacco use in France, including plain packaging.

The national programme includes a set of recommendations, which will be included in the new health draft law to be presented to the Parliament, according to a health ministry press release.

Some 13 million adults are regular smokers in France, according to the minister, and the situation is only getting worse, in particular for young people. Tobacco kills 73,000 persons per year in France, she said in a statement reproduced in the press release.

Plain packaging measures would result in standardised cigarette packs, same size, shape and colour, and would bear sanitary warnings. The trademark will remain on the packs but would be of a “defined size and very discreet.”

Other measures include banning smoking in a car when there are children under the age of 12, banning smoking from public children recreation areas, and reinforcing transparency on lobbying activities by the tobacco industry, while fighting illegal purchase of tobacco products on internet and stepping up controls to prevent contraband and counterfeiting.

France follows Australia who implemented a legislation in 2012 and some other countries which have said they are considering similar measures in plain packaging, such as New Zealand, the United Kingdom, and Ireland.

Australia is facing a dispute at the World Trade Organization, following the implementation of its law on plain packaging aimed at lowering smoking. The WTO case focuses on trademark-related grounds and unfair competition (IPW, WTO, 26 April 2014).