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 the introduction of a bill containing provisions for generic cigarette packaging on 25 September 2014. The bill was passed on 17 December 2015. The tobacco industry promptly attacked it in court, but lost its case. This legislation was upheld on 21 January 2016 as constitutional by France’s Constitutional Council. Cigarettes manufactured after 20 May 2016 or sold after 1 January 2017 must be put in plain packaging. The Decree of 16 August 2016 requires that new cigarette and tobacco brands that will be introduced on the Hungarian market after 20 August 2016 has to be in a uniform plain packaging,