28 June 2012

Plain packaging

The BPIF is currently preparing a written response to Department of Health proposals to introduce standardised tobacco packaging (sometimes referred to as ‘Plain packaging'). Apart from the business impact this will have on manufacturers of printed packaging, there is also evidence that the proposals would fail to achieve their stated objectives of discouraging people from smoking as cigarettes and their packaging would become easier to counterfeit. This raises the prospect of the market being flooded with cheap contraband cigarettes which have not been subject to quality control and present with far greater potential risks to health.

On 26 June the BPIF was represented at the Parliamentary launch of new research published by Transcrime (the Joint International research centre on Transactional Crime) entitled Plain packaging and illicit trade in the UK, chaired by All Party Parliamentary Print Group Secretary Gerry Sutcliffe MP, which sets out the risks of illicit trade in tobacco products as unintended consequences of the introduction of plain packaging in the UK. To download a copy of the report, go to http://transcrime.cs.unitn.it/tc/1069.php . If you would like to know more about the Plain Packaging proposals please email [email protected]