Details of the arguments used by Big Tobacco are set out in the pages listed here. These pages include the information that can be used to counter the industry arguments.
The tobacco industry have mounted well-funded and sophisticated campaigns opposing plain packaging of tobacco products in every country where the policy is taken forward by government. However, the arguments used by opponents of plain packaging are broadly similar in each country.
Governments should take objections to plain packaging, and the veracity of them, into careful consideration when reviewing the evidence for the policy. Not doing so can lead to accusations of an unfair process. But officials can decide what weight or importance they give to these arguments and compare them to the evidence in support of the policy.
Tobacco companies have also submitted lengthy responses to public consultations on plain packaging. These submissions provide the detail behind the arguments that headline in the media and are referred to though out these pages. A separate page provides links to a number of the tobacco company consultation submissions.
It is important for governments and civil society to mobilise support for tobacco plain packaging and part of that process involves countering the false or deceitful arguments of the tobacco industry. This means anticipating the likely arguments and directly refuting them.