The battle over the introduction of plain packaging has revealed the unscrupulous tactics used by the tobacco industry to influence and counter. Evidence shows a multi-faceted campaign that includes using industry-funded research to falsely claim that plain packaging will lead to a rise in cigarette smuggling and illicit trade. This is despite the fact that these companies have been complicit in this very trade.
There is extensive historical evidence of transnational tobacco companies’ complicity in facilitating the smuggling of their own cigarettes. Complicity is suspected when companies export billions of cigarettes to countries that do not have a demand for such large volumes. The cigarettes find their way onto the black market and are smuggled into countries without paying appropriate duty.
As the tobacco industry wages what is arguably its most virulent battle in recent years against the regulation of its business – including threatening legal action against moves to standardise packaging. Here we provide a snapshot of the big four transnational companies operating in the UK and their relationship with the illicit trade – the list of evidence is not exhaustive.
British American Tobacco
In January 2000, the Guardian newspaper reported that British American Tobacco’s (BAT) own documents revealed how the company had “condoned tax evasion and exploited the smuggling of billions of cigarettes in a global effort to boost sales and lure generations of new smokers.”
Later the same year, BAT also faced serious racketeering charges in Columbia “arising from its involvement in organised crime in pursuit of a massive, ongoing smuggling scheme.”
On July 15 2010, in an agreement between the European Commission and BAT the Tobacco Company paid US$200m to settle smuggling-related issues.
Just last year, in 2014, BAT was fined £650,000 for over-supplying its own product to Belgium.
Imperial Tobacco
Imperial Tobacco, the fourth largest tobacco company in the world, and the company with the largest market share in the UK, has also been under fire.
In 2002, according to Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs (HMRC), genuine Imperial brands accounted for 55% of the 17 billion cigarettes smuggled into the UK that year. Consequently, when the company was questioned about over-supply to countries notorious for smuggling at an appearance in front of the Commons public accounts committee, to which it claimed ignorance, Imperial’s chief executive was told: “One comes to the conclusion that you are either crooks or you are stupid, and you do not look very stupid.”
Imperial allegedly exported 1.7 billion cigarettes a year to Latvia which was enough for every man woman and child in the country to consume 722 cigarettes a year.
Philip Morris International
In 2004, Philip Morris International (PMI) paid the European Union US$1.25 billion to settle claims over tobacco smuggling.
As part of this settlement, PMI agreed to produce an annual report called Project Star about illicit tobacco in the European Union. An evaluation of Project Star by the Tobacco Control Research Group at the University of Bath found that the report “served the interests of PMI over those of the EU and its member states” and relied too heavily on their own surveys that were not independently verified.
Gallaher
Between 2005 and 2008, a legal battle fought by Gallaher (acquired by Japan Tobacco International in 2007) exposed its own facilitation of tobacco smuggling in which more than 20,000 internal documents between the company and a former Cypriot distributor. During the case the distributor, Ptolomeous Tlais, alleged the company set up a trading “environment” conducive to illegal activity.
Japan Tobacco International
In 2011, the Organised Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP) revealed that Russia and the Middle East were the “hub of smuggling by JTI distributors” and that JTI’s own investigators said the company “did almost nothing when faced with reports …”
In 2013, JTI remained under investigation by OLAF, the European Union’s anti-fraud office for these smuggling offences. An enquiry has been made in 2015 to find out if this investigation is still ongoing.
Click here for more information on the tobacco industry, its involvement in illicit trade and its attempts to influence public health policy. And for a full history and documents, visit TobaccoTactics.org.
Truthout Is Preparing to Meet Trump’s Agenda With Resistance at Every Turn
Dear Truthout Community,
If you feel rage, despondency, confusion and deep fear today, you are not alone. We’re feeling it too. We are heartsick. Facing down Trump’s fascist agenda, we are desperately worried about the most vulnerable people among us, including our loved ones and everyone in the Truthout community, and our minds are racing a million miles a minute to try to map out all that needs to be done.
We must give ourselves space to grieve and feel our fear, feel our rage, and keep in the forefront of our mind the stark truth that millions of real human lives are on the line. And simultaneously, we’ve got to get to work, take stock of our resources, and prepare to throw ourselves full force into the movement.
Journalism is a linchpin of that movement. Even as we are reeling, we’re summoning up all the energy we can to face down what’s coming, because we know that one of the sharpest weapons against fascism is publishing the truth.
There are many terrifying planks to the Trump agenda, and we plan to devote ourselves to reporting thoroughly on each one and, crucially, covering the movements resisting them. We also recognize that Trump is a dire threat to journalism itself, and that we must take this seriously from the outset.
Last week, the four of us sat down to have some hard but necessary conversations about Truthout under a Trump presidency. How would we defend our publication from an avalanche of far right lawsuits that seek to bankrupt us? How would we keep our reporters safe if they need to cover outbreaks of political violence, or if they are targeted by authorities? How will we urgently produce the practical analysis, tools and movement coverage that you need right now — breaking through our normal routines to meet a terrifying moment in ways that best serve you?
It will be a tough, scary four years to produce social justice-driven journalism. We need to deliver news, strategy, liberatory ideas, tools and movement-sparking solutions with a force that we never have had to before. And at the same time, we desperately need to protect our ability to do so.
We know this is such a painful moment and donations may understandably be the last thing on your mind. But we must ask for your support, which is needed in a new and urgent way.
We promise we will kick into an even higher gear to give you truthful news that cuts against the disinformation and vitriol and hate and violence. We promise to publish analyses that will serve the needs of the movements we all rely on to survive the next four years, and even build for the future. We promise to be responsive, to recognize you as members of our community with a vital stake and voice in this work.
Please dig deep if you can, but a donation of any amount will be a truly meaningful and tangible action in this cataclysmic historical moment. We are presently looking for 98 new monthly donors before midnight tonight.
We’re with you. Let’s do all we can to move forward together.
With love, rage, and solidarity,
Maya, Negin, Saima, and Ziggy