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
Tobacco packaging warning messages Presentation and Sale of Tobacco Products) (Amendment) Regulations 2008 were enacted. This states that tobacco products going to market after 30 September 2008 must carry warnings in Irish and English. A year-long transition period applied to products which were on the market prior to 1 October 2008, which may have been sold until 1 October 2009. Each packet of tobacco products must carry: Other text is sometimes placed in the packets, for example some packets contain leaflets which have all the above warnings written on them, with more detailed explanations and reasons to give up, and advice from Philip Morris.