In a letter published in The Law Society Gazette, Jonathan Griffiths, Reader in Intellectual Property Law at Queen Mary University of London, discusses the legal issues surrounding the introduction of standardised packaging for tobacco products.
The letter measures the chances of success for the legislation, acknowledging the likelihood of the tobacco industry challenging the "uncompensated regulation of their ‘brands’ as a violation of the property right protected under the European Union’s Charter of Fundamental Rights (article 17)."
"The industry will undoubtedly challenge the legislation. It has limitless resources and grimly fights every legal measure intended to reduce the impact of smoking on human health," he writes, "[h]owever, there is no reason at all to believe that its arguments will succeed in this instance. The jurisprudence of the Luxembourg and Strasbourg courts indicates that the government is on safe ground."
Read the full article on the Law Society Gazette website.