UK: Tobacco prices rise following introduction of plain packaging

The price of tobacco in the UK has increased since the introduction of plain packaging for cigarette packets in 2017, defying the tobacco industry's claims at the time that the public health measure would lead to lower prices. A paper, published in the journal PLOS One[1], compares prices before and after the measure was implemented, in 2015 and 2018. Professor Anna Gilmore, who heads the University's Tobacco Control Research Group in charge of the study, explains: " As with other predictions made by tobacco companies, their claims have not stood up to scrutiny. We found that prices in most market segments increased more rapidly after the measure was adopted than in the preceding period.. » During the consultation on the introduction of plain packaging in the UK, the big tobacco companies claimed that smokers would refuse to pay high prices for premium cigarettes in plain packaging, so the move would lead to lower prices and therefore an increase in smoking. By analysing tobacco sales data, the Bath researchers found the opposite: prices were higher one year after the plain packaging legislation came into full force, compared to prices in 2015 before its introduction. The increase in the minimum charge made it easy to counter manufacturers’ strategies to make their products more accessible through a price war. The authors of this new study from the Tobacco Control Research Group at the University of Bath, stress that these findings should be used in countries considering the introduction of plain packaging for tobacco products and are faced with claims from the tobacco industry.©Tobacco Free Generation

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[1] Hiscock R, Augustin NH, Branston JR, Gilmore AB (2020) Standardized packaging, minimum excise tax, and RYO focused tax rise implications for UK tobacco pricing. PLoS ONE 15(2): e0228069. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0228069 https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0228069| ©National Committee Against Smoking |