Under pressure from industry, Uruguay abandons plain packaging

After courageously standing up to the tobacco industry in the 2010s, Uruguay has now complied with its demands by eliminating plain packaging for tobacco products. This illustrates the strong pressure that tobacco companies exert on leaders in low- and middle-income countries.

The Uruguayan government's decree ending standardized plain packaging for cigarettes has sparked outrage among anti-smoking activists. The decree also allows manufacturers to insert written materials into cigarette packages, something tobacco companies have been seeking for years, and to put messages on cigarettes, both of which violate the country's ban on tobacco advertising.

Uruguay is indeed the Latin American country with the most developed anti-smoking policy and has often been cited as a global example of political courage in this area. The Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids (CTFK) has publicly regretted that Uruguayan President Lacalle Pou has given in to the industry's demands, and has called on him to repeal the decree in question.[1]The government of Lacalle Pou had recently already responded to the wishes of the industrialists by cancelling the ban on the marketing of heated tobacco products.

A pioneering country in the fight against smoking

Under the mandates of the Dr. Tabare Vazquez, who was president from 2005 to 2010 and from 2015 to 2020, Uruguay had taken numerous anti-smoking measures. It was the first country in Latin America to ban smoking in public places and in enclosed workplaces, in 2006.

A lawsuit brought by Philip Morris International (PMI) against Uruguay over the enlargement of health warnings to 80% of the surface area of cigarette packs and the restriction of cigarette brand variations lasted from 2010 to 2016. The administration of President Mujica (2010-2015) had at one time been on the verge of giving in to PMI, but changed its mind after the vigorous mobilization of a coalition of local and international anti-tobacco civil society, supported by Dr. Vàsquez[2]Uruguay had finally won its case at the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID), showing that a small, disadvantaged country could, in the name of public health, oppose the imperative demands of a multinational like PMI.

By adopting plain packaging in 2019, Uruguay was once again a pioneer in Latin America. The abandonment of this measure therefore sounds like revenge from the tobacco industry, which takes particular care to preserve the marketing tools that packaging represents. The industry also favors attacks on the countries that are most advanced in tobacco control, in order to counter the ripple effect and inspiration that they can generate in other countries.

Plain packaging targeted by the tobacco industry

The industry's attacks have been particularly vigorous in all countries that have sought to introduce plain packaging for tobacco products. Manufacturers have often argued that this measure is ineffective, while numerous studies have shown that it is, on the contrary, a decisive public health measure, leading to a denormalization tobacco, particularly among young people, and significantly influencing attempts to quit smoking[3]. Plain packaging also helps to counter claims and indications on packaging suggesting that certain products are less harmful.

The animosity displayed by the tobacco industry on this chapter seems to confirm how strategic it is in terms of marketing, as evidenced by the insistence that Uruguay has been the target of. 24 countries have now adopted plain packaging for tobacco products and 11 others are currently studying this issue. Israel is the first and currently the only country to have extended plain packaging to electronic cigarettes, e-liquids and vaping products. heated tobacco.

Keywords: Uruguay, plain package, PMI

M.F.