 |
| A European Court judgment has not deterred the Government from its plan to ban tobacco advertising |
The Government is to go ahead with a ban on tobacco advertising, despite the
annulment by the European Court of Justice of a European Community directive
on banning advertising.
The Minister for Public Health (Ms Yvette Cooper) said on October 5: “The
ruling is a disappointment, but it will not deflect us from implementing our
manifesto commitment to ban tobacco advertising. We said at the time of the
advocate general’s opinion in June that we would consider primary legislation
to ban tobacco advertising and that is what we are doing.”
Directive 98/43/EC was passed by the European Commission in July, 1998. Member
states were given until July 30, 2001, to implement it. The European Court challenge
to the directive was launched by the German government.
In Britain, the tobacco companies challenged the Government’s implementation
plans in the High Court and won a staying injunction. The Government won an
appeal, but the stay remained in place pending appeal by the tobacco companies
to the House of Lords. The House of Lords heard the appeal in May, but has yet
to give its ruling.