- DATE: Thursday, 9 September 2021
- TIME: 11:00am EDT [click here for your corresponding time zone]
- DURATION: 120 minutes
Even before the entry into force of the World Health Organization's Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (WHO FCTC), the tobacco industry and its allies have deployed a series of strategies to prevent governments from implementing tobacco control measures that would improve the health conditions of their populations.
The tobacco industry has devoted abundant resources to mislead legislators and regulators to prevent enacting effective tobacco control laws and regulations, including using litigation before national and international courts to challenge the national implementation of measures such as those promoted by the WHO FCTC.
The objectives of the tobacco industry to challenge tobacco control measures are numerous. As will be seen during this second session, the tobacco industry uses legal strategies not only to intimidate governments to prevent them from adopting tobacco control regulations, but also to convince them to weaken those which they have already in place. The tobacco industry also seeks, through litigation, to make tobacco control measures implementation more expensive, delay the process of implementing a measure, or dissuade other governments from following the lead of more robust regulations. Prior knowledge of the industry’s legal strategies helps Member States to anticipate arguments, strengthen their legal positions, and design solid and more resilient laws and regulations.
The strategies and legal arguments used by the tobacco industry to challenge tobacco control policies are often similar all over the world. First, spends “substantial resources to sway lawmakers against passing effective tobacco control laws. Second, where its efforts to dilute or weaken tobacco control laws fail, it turns to the courts, often deploying the same or similar arguments based on certain purported “rights.” These “rights” relate to the advertising and marketing of its products, the “rights” of citizens to consume those products in public or occupational spaces, and the “rights” of proprietors and employers to permit such consumption”.
One tobacco control policy that has been widely challenged is one which aimed to ban or regulate the way companies can depict and advertise their products in the market. Thus, the mandate to incorporate messages or warnings that provide more and better information to the population about the real harmful effects derived from the consumption of their products (e.g., through the adoption of graphic health warnings) or the establishment of restrictions or bans on advertising, promotion, and sponsorship of tobacco products are both tobacco control measures that have been under heavy judicial scrutiny due to the industry’s actions. During this session, we will analyze how several legal challenges have resulted in several governments being able to defend themselves before national and international courts in the instances where they sought to implement strict restrictions on the way tobacco companies identify and promote their products (e.g., through the implementation of plain packaging of tobacco products).
It is essential to note that the arguments used by the tobacco industry before the Courts are not only baseless but have also been rejected numerous times worldwide. This session will also highlight how many governments have successfully faced the legal challenges brought about by the tobacco industry, as well as how the rights of Member States to implement tobacco control measures that protect the health of their people has been widely upheld by Courts. Additionally, an opportunity will also be presented to learn about the arguments that the tobacco industry traditionally uses in court to challenge the implementation of tobacco control measures and how Member States and other governments worldwide have successfully dealt with such challenges.
About Session 2
Objectives of the Session:
- Raise awareness about the litigation strategies used by the tobacco industry globally and in the Region of the Americas to challenge the implementation of the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control
- Provide an overview of the most common legal argument used by the tobacco industry to challenge in court the implementation of tobacco control measures
- Share the international experience in countering industry’s legal arguments in court
- Share country experiences regarding the tobacco industry litigation actions to challenge the implementation of tobacco control measures in several jurisdictions, in particular, those aimed to restrict the advertising, promotion and sponsorship of tobacco products
Agenda
Click here for a bibliography of resources for Session 2