Archive

BY KEITH NUTHALL
A CALL has been made at the European Parliament for European Union (EU) Member States to phase out tobacco vending machines and ban promotional items such as lighters, ashtrays and free cigarettes. The key aim would be to discourage smoking by children and teenagers, said a report approved by the parliament’s environment committee.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Commission has sued RJ Reynolds in New York, seeking damages against allegations that it illegally laundered the proceeds of cigarette smuggling. The case – which also involves Italy, Germany, France, Spain, Portugal, Greece, Belgium, the Netherlands, Finland and Luxembourg – also seeks an injunction stopping future alleged laundering.…

BY MONICA DOBIE
PHILIP Morris has been ordered to pay a fine in a Sydney court for violating Australia’s tobacco advertising laws. Magistrate John Andrews said that the company had engaged in a “concerted campaign” to encourage teenage girls to smoke by staging a free fashion show featuring decorations with the same colours used in Alpine cigarette packaging and a video that showed Alpine packs.…

BY MARK ROWE
THE THEORY of evolution is as relevant to the tobacco industry’s battle against counterfeiters as it is to the animal kingdom. As technology evolves to give the brand owners the edge, so the counterfeiter moves quickly to play catch up, with both cat and mouse becoming ever more sophisticated in efforts to gain the upper hand.…

BY MONICA DOBIE
THE US Supreme Court has rejected a lawsuit brought by the Canadian government against R.J. Reynolds, which sought to recover US$1 billion in taxes and revenues allegedly lost through cigarette smuggling from 1991 to 1997.

Canada claimed R.J.…

BY ALAN OSBORN
THE FINAL round of negotiations leading to a UN Framework Convention on Tobacco Control at the World Health Organisation will begin in February 2003 with many issues still outstanding, including the all-important question of advertising. It became clear at the fifth round, which ended in October, that the US and the EU are still far apart on the question of tobacco advertising.…

BY ALAN OSBORN
A LONG-LIST of nine names was being considered this month (January) by the World Health Organisation as potential successors to Gro Harlem Brundtland as director general next year. Dr Brundtland has conducted a relentless campaign against smoking and the organisation may be difficult to elect a similar anti-tobacco crusader given the differences she has had with the US.…

BY ALAN OSBORN
THE WAY has been cleared for approval of a European Union (EU) directive on tobacco advertising. This follows a vote by the European Parliament against a number of amendments that could have risked a re-run of the rejection by the European Court of Justice of an earlier proposal in 2000 because the EU overstepped its powers.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
A RESTRICTED trade in wool from captured wild vicuna in Argentina, Bolivia and Chile has been approved by a conference of parties to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES).

The United Nations (UN) convention’s members agreed in Santiago, Chile, to lift a ban in trading these small beasts “for the purpose of allowing international trade in wool sheared from live animals…bearing the label vicuna Argentina, Bolivia or Chile.”…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Commission wants to extend for 12 months an experiment allowing shoe and leather repairers in Belgium, Luxembourg and the Netherlands to charge lower rates to their customers. The idea is to promote labour intensive industries such as shoe repairing and the Commission is considering making the scheme permanent.…