standaardverpakking voor sigaretten en shag

Reactie

Vraag1

The member companies of the Confederation of European Community Cigarette Manufacturers (CECCM) oppose the standardisation of the presentation of packets of cigarettes and rolling tobacco.

The standardization of packaging for tobacco products clearly falls within the prohibition contained in Article 34 of the EU Treaty. Measures infringing the free movement of goods are unlawful as a matter of EU law unless they can be justified. The burden of justifying the interferences with the right of free movement of goods, again, falls on the Member State. CECCM believes that plain packaging creates a barrier to trade.

Furthermore, plain packaging has been implemented in Australia, France and the UK (and more recently, in Ireland). The data from these countries so far shows that the measure has not had any discernible impact on smoking prevalence or consumption. One year after the implementation, data published by the French Observatory for Drugs and Addiction shows that tobacco products shipped to retailers (cigarettes and RYO/MYO) were broadly stable in France, with only a slight evolution of -0.7% in volume, following a 1.3% increase in sales during the first half of the year.

In addition, a statement by the Minister of Health of France Mme Agnes Buzyn, admits herself that this measure “doesn’t lead smokers to stop smoking" and concluded that "official cigarette sales have increased in France: plain packaging therefore did not contribute to reducing official tobacco sales".
In the UK, there has been no statistically significant impact on smoking rates or tobacco
consumption. Like in Australia, the standardization of packaging for tobacco products risks leading to negative effects in the UK and France or other countries that adopt the measure or are considering its introduction. For example it has been recently reported in the UK that authorities have started to discover counterfeit ‘standardised’ packs.