Tobacco Companies to Sue Thai Government over Health Warnings

Thailand's government is being sued by several multinational tobacco companies and hundreds of retailers.

Their target is the Kingdom's health department and its new regulations for bigger health warnings on cigarette packaging, making them the world's largest.

Thailand already demands large and dramatic photographs of diseases caused by smoking on cigarette packages. They take up 55 per cent of the pack.
 
The new regulation expands this to 85 per cent, making it the world's largest graphic warning on cigarette packages.
 
Bungon Ritthiphakdee is the Director of the South East Asia Tobacco Control Alliance.
 
She says Thailand is a signatory to the World Health Organisation's Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, which recommends the use of pictorial warnings.
 
“We believe that size matters so that means the bigger is better, because most Thai smokers have low education, so that means that most of the smokers are in the rural areas where literacy is very low.”
 
Thailand installed graphic warnings back in 2005, the fourth country in the world to do so and the second in ASEAN. 
 
Tobacco companies are resisting its latest increase in warning size.
 
Philip Morris, makes Marlboro cigarettes, the world's largest selling brand plus several popular local brands in Indonesia and the Philippines. It's filing a legal challenge, accusing the Thai health ministry of not respecting the rule of law and imposing "an illogical requirement that will change the marketplace (so) significantly."
 
In its press release it added:
 
“Ultimately, this requirement is not about increasing the public's awareness of the risks of smoking -- which is universal. The Ministry exempts half of the tobacco products sold in Thailand from the new warning. How does that make sense? In our view, this is a punitive measure.”
 
Tokyo-based Japan Tobacco is also reportedly suing. So is the Thai Tobacco Trade Association, which represents 1,400 retailers.
 
Philip Morris lost its case against Australia's world first and controversial plain packaging.
 
Bungon Ritthiphakdee says the Australian standard will be the ultimate goal of anti-smoking campaigners in Thailand.
 
“So in principle the best warning that Australia won, which is plain packaging, not allowing the tobacco industry to choose trade mark. So for us we choose this direction so hopefully in the future we can do the same as Australia. So we hope that with a comprehensive tobacco control program that the government is doing right now, including pictorial warnings, just increasing cigarette prices and true tobacco taxation as well as a total ban on advertising, that will help us to decrease more smokers in Thailand.”
 
42 per cent of men still smoke in Thailand and numbers haven't fallen for young people over several years.
 
The new law effective in October will allow 15 per cent of the pack to contain brand names and logos. The legal actions are expected to take up to 10 months.