Plain tobacco packaging and investment proceedings on the issue has been described as an affront to the rule of law in Australia. Dr Patricia Ranald, Convener of the Australian Fair Trade and Investment Network said that big tobacco and other global corporations are lobbying hard to include the right of foreign investors to sue governments in the current negotiations for a Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPPA). Philip Morris International lost its case in December 2015. In November 2011, British American Tobacco announced that it would challenge the laws in the High Court as soon as they gained royal assent. In August 2012, the High
Tobacco packaging warning messages of Health amended the "Cigarettes and Other Tobacco Products (Packaging and Labelling) Rules, 2008" to enforce the changes effective from 1 April 2015. However, the government decision to increase pictorial warnings on tobacco packets from April 1, was put on hold indefinitely, following the recommendations of a Parliamentary committee, which reportedly did not speak to health experts, but only spoke to tobacco lobby representatives. On April 5, 2016, the health ministry ordered government agencies to enforce this new rule. Following the intervention by the Parliamentary committee, NGO Health of Millions represented by Prashant Bhushan filed a petition in Supreme Court