EU Court Declares Tobacco Ads Ban Illegal

Just a day after the FIA had announced it accepts the upcoming tobacco advertising ban in Formula One, Europe's highest court overturned legislation banning tobacco advertising in the European Union, dealing a major blow to EU health policy.

The court said the ban was illegal because it was introduced as a single market measure, rather than one which required unanimous backing from all EU member states.

The block adopted laws in July 1998 which would gradually have phased out almost all tobacco advertising and sponsorship by 2006. The move would have stopped most forms of tobacco advertising three years after coming into force.

Beyond that, press advertising would have been allowed for a further year. Sponsorship of most sports and arts events would have been possible for a further two years, and of major events, such as Formula One motor racing, until October 2006.

But EU powers over health policy were very limited at the time the measure was introduced, and the European Commission justified its proposal as a way of harmonising differences in national laws which hindered free trade across the EU's borders.

"The Court of Justice has today annulled the directive on the ground that the (EU) legislature was not empowered to adopt it on the basis of the provisions relating to establishment of the internal market," the court said in a statement.

"The Court considered that the general prohibition of numerous types of advertising of tobacco products in no way helped to facilitate trade in the products concerned.

It stressed, however, that the EU's governing treaty would have allowed more limited restrictions on certain forms of tobacco advertising.

The German government welcomed the ruling as clarification of the division of powers between the EU and its member countries. But a German health ministry spokesman said efforts would continue in Germany to restrict tobacco advertising, mainly through self-regulation by the industry.

Germany's advertising industry hailed the decision.

"It's a huge victory for the advertising industry. The court showed the EU institutions a red card. For legal products there can be advertisements now within the EU. It's a complete success for the advertising industry," Volker Nickel, spokesman for German advertising association (ZAW) told Reuters.

The European Commission, the author of the law, put a brave face on the result, saying the court had merely clarified what was and was not possible.

"The court has clarified the best way forward in tackling the scourge of smoking," Beate Gminder, spokeswoman for EU health commissioner David Byrne, told Reuters.

"(It) has left the door open for restrictions on tobacco promotion, providing the means are more focused," she added.

The Commission has targeted the tobacco industry on a number of fronts.

Governments and European Parliament deputies are currently debating proposals to tighten limits on tar, nicotine and carbon monoxide in cigarettes and require stark new health warnings on cigarette packs.

Meanwhile, Byrne is campaigning within the Commission to phase out the EU's annual one billion euro ($874.9 million) in subsidies to tobacco growers, although he is likely to face opposition from Farm Commissioner Franz Fischler.

A number of tobacco manufacturers -- including Imperial Tobacco Group , Gallaher Group and British American Tobacco -- brought proceedings in Britain for judicial review, a case later referred to the European Court alongside the German case.