Australia Imposes Fines on Philip Morris over Packaging Case
11 July 2017 10:34 WIB
TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - The Australian government imposed fines on the world's largest tobacco product company, Philip Morris. The BBC news agency reported that this fine was the aftermath of Phillip Morris's failure in suing the Australian government over the plain package rules applicable since 2012.
Philip Morris Asia Limited, Imperial Tobacco, and Japan Tobacco took to the International court of arbitration in 2011 in protesting against Australia’s state policy that requires cigarettes to be sold using a uniformed plain packages accompanied by graphic health warnings.
“This policy was introduced to reduce the number of smokers, especially among the younger generations,” as quoted by Koran Tempo on Tuesday, July 11.
Read: Tobacco Industry Interference in Indonesia Highest in ASEAN
But the arbitration tribunal annulled the cigarette manufacturer's claim. The World Trade Organization (WTO) later decided that Australian government rules could be accepted as an effort to promote public health and could be adopted internationally. Cigarette companies were stumbling because they were charged with legal fees incurred by the Australian government in the face of their lawsuit. The Sydney Morning Herald daily said the fine could amount to A $ 50 million (US $ 38 million) or around Rp 509 billion.
Philip Morris management argued that Australian government’s claim was unreasonable and is well above similar claims made by Canada and U.S. which is around US$ 4.5million - US$ 3million.
Besides Phillip Morris, five tobacco producing countries have followed suit the tobacco giant and complained Australia’s cigarette packaging regulation to the WTO forum for allegedly violating WTO’s three provisions. The five countries are Indonesia, Honduras, Dominican Republic, Ukraine, and Cuba.
FERY FIRMANSYAH