The Norwegian government will discuss the introduction of plain packaging for tobacco products next week, as the Nordic nation seeks to become the latest country to stamp out one of the last remaining vestiges of cigarette marketing.
The Norwegian health minister will present new research and provide an update on legislation to require the sale of cigarettes in packages without logos Tuesday in Oslo, the ministry said in a statement Thursday. On May 31 the World Health Organization celebrates World No-Tobacco Day, an annual event created in 1987 that publicizes the dangers of smoking.
Cigarette makers Philip Morris International Inc., Imperial Brands Plc and British American Tobacco Plc lost a fight against European Union curbs on their products in a ruling earlier this month that may pave the way for governments to impose plain packaging. The U.K. and Ireland together with France are the first European countries to back the measure, which tobacco companies claim violates their intellectual property rights.
Tobacco companies also lost a case in a U.K. court to suspend Britain’s plain packaging rules, which require smokes to be sold in drab packages with large health warnings.
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