Plain tobacco packaging Court ruled in favour of the Australian government. British American Tobacco placed freedom of information requests on a Cancer Institute NSW research survey of school students aged between 12-17, which asked how they react to plain packaging, where they get cigarettes from and what age they started smoking. The Cancer Council Victoria fought the FOI request, saying that the tobacco company wanted to use the survey information to change their marketing to children to increase cigarette smoking among youth. Phillip Morris was ordered to pay the Australian government's legal fees. A FOI request by Nick Xenophon and Rex Patrick revealed
Plain tobacco packaging tobacco companies subsequently hired a public relations firm to oversee the campaign. In May 2011, British American Tobacco launched a media campaign suggesting that illicit trade and crime syndicates would benefit from plain packaging. BATA CEO David Crow threatened to lower cigarette prices in order to compete, which he claimed could result in higher levels of smoking amongst young people. Mr. Crow later commented he would tell his own children not to smoke cigarettes, because they are unhealthy. The BATA campaign is largely based on a report from Deloitte. Several of the claims contained in the report related to border