Plain tobacco packaging tank supported by British American Tobacco, stated that it would be "disastrous if the government, by introducing plain-packaging legislation, [removed] the simplest mechanism for the ordinary consumer to tell whether their cigarettes are counterfeit or not." Arguments against plain packaging include its effect on smuggling, its effect on shops and retailers, and its possible illegality. A study published in July 2014 by the British Medical Journal refuted those claims. In reporting Philip Morris's legal action against the Australian project, "The Times of India" noted in 2011 that plain packaging legislation was being closely watched by other countries, and that tobacco
Plain tobacco packaging part of their campaign on the 2016 World No Tobacco Day and urged then-presumptive president Rodrigo Duterte to implement a law to standardize cigarette packs. The Department of Health (DOH), however, is not ready to implement plain cigarette packaging, and rather focus on enforcing graphic health warnings on cigarette packs under the Graphic Health Warning Act of 2014 that took effect in March 2016. On the 15 February 2017, the Parliament of Slovenia passed a law for the introduction of plain packaging from 2020. On 5 December 2014, Swiss parliamentarian Pierre-Alain Fridez tabled a motion for plain packaging in Switzerland.