British American Tobacco Corp. In 2012 British American Tobacco, along with Philip Morris and Imperial Tobacco, sued the Australian Commonwealth government. At the High Court, they argued that the Commonwealth's plain packaging legislation was unconstitutional because it usurped the companies' intellectual property rights and good will on other than just terms. However, the challenge was unsuccessful. In November 2014, Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs (HMRC) fined BAT £650,000 after it determined that the company glutted the Belgian market with tobacco products with the likelihood these products would illegally find themselves back into the UK, with UK excise taxes not paid. The event highlighted
Plain tobacco packaging in EU countries in May 2016, the option for the Member States to introduce plain packaging. Legal scholars consider plain packaging to be consistent with primary European law and German law. The directive adopted April 3, 2014 explicitly states that 28 EU countries have the option of implementing plain packaging, a provision upheld on May 4, 2016 by the European Court of Justice as valid when dismissing a tobacco industry legal challenge. In December 2010, a UMP member of the French Parliament tabled a Member's Bill aimed at creating plain cigarette packaging. However, the bill did not pass despite ongoing