The Government has today confirmed a date on which all tobacco advertising is to be banned in the UK (see Newsline). The new laws, published today as the draft Tobacco (Prohibition of Advertising and Promotion) Regulations 1999 will ban all forms of direct and indirect advertising on billboards, in newspapers and magazines from 10 December 1999.
All general tobacco advertising in shops and newsagents will also cease from 10 December, with the exception of price lists and behind the counter stock display units.
Virtually all tobacco sponsorship will be ended from July 2003; exceptional global events such a Formula 1 racing, which have a high dependency on tobacco sponsorship, will have an extra three years to remove tobacco sponsorships. This on the proviso that they cut tobacco advertising and sponsorship by at least a fifth in each of those three years.
Frank Dobson, secretary of state for health, took a grave and firm line today: “By the end of this year, the tobacco industry will no longer be allowed to invest in multi-million pound advertising campaigns which recruit new smokers, including children, to make up for their customers who have died,” he says.
Britain is the first European government to publish details of how it proposes to implement the European Directive on tobacco advertising. Needless to say, the Tobacco Manufacturers Association is displeased at the action and its chief executive David Swan commented: “The Government is totally misguided, and has acted with blatant disregard for the legal position, in pushing ahead with the European advertising and sponsorship ban before the European Court has ruled on its legal validity.”
The European Directive is at present the subject of legal challenge by four UK tobacco companies, the German Government and others. If these challenges are upheld by the European Court of Justice any legislation brought in by the UK Government will become invalid.
David Swan added: “Under the draft regulations, direct mail will be prohibited, which means adult smokers who wish to receive information about tobacco products will no longer be able to do so. This is tantamount to censorship of people’s mail and clear violation of individual’s right to information about a legally available product.”
Department Of Health: 0171 210 4850
