British American Tobacco V Department of Health Judgment
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Neutral Citation Number: [2016] EWHC 1169 (Admin) Case No: CO/2322/2015, CO/2323/2015, CO/2352/2015, CO/2601/2015 & CO/2706/2015 IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUSTICE QUEEN'S BENCH DIVISION ADMINISTRATIVE COURT Royal Courts of Justice Strand, London, WC2A 2LL Date: 19/05/2016 Before : MR JUSTICE GREEN - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Between : THE QUEEN On the application of (1) BRITISH AMERICAN TOBACCO (UK) LIMITED (2) BRITISH AMERICAN TOBACCO (BRANDS) INC. (3) BRITISH AMERICAN TOBACCO (INVESTMENTS) LIMITED First Claimants - and - SECRETARY OF STATE FOR HEALTH Defendant And Between : THE QUEEN On the application of (1) PHILIP MORRIS BRANDS SARL (2) PHILIP MORRIS PRODUCTS SA Second (3) PHILIP MORRIS LIMITED Claimants - and - SECRETARY OF STATE FOR HEALTH Defendant And Between : THE QUEEN On the application of (1) JT INTERNATIONAL SA Third (2) GALLAHER LIMITED Claimants Judgment Approved by the court for handing down. Tobacco Packaging - and - SECRETARY OF STATE FOR HEALTH Defendant And Between : THE QUEEN On the application of Fourth IMPERIAL TOBACCO LIMITED Claimant - and - SECRETARY OF STATE FOR HEALTH Defendant ACTION ON SMOKING AND HEALTH (“ASH”) Intervener - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Case No: CO/2322/2015: NIGEL PLEMING QC, GEOFFREY HOBBS QC, DAVID SCANNELL and PHILIP ROBERTS (instructed by Herbert Smith Freehills LLP) appeared on behalf of the First Claimants Case No: CO/2323/2015: MARIE DEMETRIOU QC and DANIEL PICCININ (instructed by Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom (UK) LLP) appeared on behalf of the Second Claimants Case No: CO/2352/2015: DAVID ANDERSON QC, EMMA HIMSWORTH QC and JENNIFER MacLEOD (instructed by Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer LLP) appeared on behalf of the Third Claimants Case No: CO/2601/2015: DINAH ROSE QC, BRIAN KENNELLY, LINDSAY LANE, JASON POBJOY and MAXWELL KEAY (instructed by Ashurst LLP) appeared on behalf of the Fourth Claimant JAMES EADIE QC, MARTIN HOWE QC, IAN ROGERS QC, CATHERINE CALLAGHAN, JULIANNE KERR MORRISON, NIKOLAUS GRUBECK and JAANI RIORDAN (instructed by the Government Legal Department) appeared on behalf of the Defendant in relation to each of the above proceedings And PETER OLIVER and LIGIA OSEPCIU (instructed by Leigh Day) appeared on behalf of the Intervener The following proceedings have also been linked to the above proceedings: Case No: CO/2706/2015: THE QUEEN On the application of TANN UK LIMITED, TANNPAPIER GMBH, BENKERT UK LIMITED, DEUTSCHE BENKERT GMBH & CO KG (Claimants) - and - Page 2 Judgment Approved by the court for handing down. Tobacco Packaging SECRETARY OF STATE FOR HEALTH (Defendant) KELYN BACON QC and TIM JOHNSTON (instructed by Singleton Solicitors) appeared on behalf of the Claimants JAMES EADIE QC, MARTIN HOWE QC, IAN ROGERS QC, CATHERINE CALLAGHAN, JULIANNE KERR MORRISON, NIKOLAUS GRUBECK and JAANI RIORDAN (instructed by the Government Legal Department) appeared on behalf of the Defendant Hearing dates: 10-11th, 14-18th December 2015 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Approved Judgment Page 3 Judgment Approved by the court for handing down. Tobacco Packaging INDEX A. INTRODUCTION, SUMMARY & CONCLUSIONS 1-46 (1) The applications for judicial review: The Regulations being challenged 1 (2) The international and EU context 2 (3) Implementation of the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (“FCTC”) 3-6 (4) A summary of the grounds of challenge 7-17 (5) The intrinsic value of the Claimants’ evidence 18-28 (6) Proportionality 29-36 (7) The limits of judicial decision making 37 (8) Violation of property rights 38-39 (9) Challenges to the lawfulness of the Regulations 40 (10) Challenges to other Treaty and Fundamental Charter Provisions 41 (11) BAT’s challenges to the pre-legislative consultation exercise 42-43 (12) The Tipping Manufacturers’ challenges 44-45 (13) Conclusions 46 B. THE FACTS 47-89 (1) The litigation/procedural matters 47-50 (2) The parties 51-54 (3) The Standardised Packaging of Tobacco Products Regulations 2015 55-59 (4) The Government’s policy in introducing the Regulations 60-76 (i) General objectives – the scale of the health problem 61-70 (ii) Specific objectives 71-76 (5) The commercial and economic effect of the Regulations 77-84 (6) The rights in issue 85-89 C. THE CONSULTATION PROCESS LEADING UP TO THE PROMULGATION OF THE REGULATIONS 90-149 (1) The identity of the decision maker: Parliament 90-92 (2) The Stirling Review 93-96 (3) The 2012 Consultation 97-99 (4) The introduction of plain packaging rules in Australia 100 (5) The February 2013 Submissions 101 (6) The Summary Report: July 2013/the position in relation to Australia 102-103 (7) The setting up of the Chantler Review 104-106 (8) The Chantler Review Report 107-116 (9) The position of the Chief Medical Officer in the light of Chantler 117 (10) The response of the Government to the Chantler Review: April 2014 118 (11) The 2014 Consultation 119-120 (12) Contingency planning and notification to the European Commission 121-124 Page 4 Judgment Approved by the court for handing down. Tobacco Packaging (13) The December 2014 Submission 125-134 (14) The 2014 Impact Assessment 135-138 (15) The Pechey Elicitation Study (2013) 139-142 (16) The Ministerial decision to lay draft Regulations before Parliament 143-148 (17) The promulgation of the Regulations by affirmative resolution 149 D. THE RELEVANT LEGISLATIVE FRAMEWORK 150- (1) Introduction 150 (2) The Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (“FCTC”) 151-175 (i) Signatories/relevance 151-152 (ii) Status as a guide to interpretation 153-156 (iii) The stated objectives of the FCTC 157-159 (iv) The prohibition on advertising in the FCTC 160-166 (v) Guidelines on Article 13 FCTC 167 (vi) The protection of national health policies from vested tobacco interests: Article 5(3) 168-169 (vii) Guidelines on Article 5(3) 170-173 (viii) The principle of transparency 174-175 (3) The Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (“TRIPS”) 176-186 (i) TRIPS 176 (ii) The basic rights conferred by a trade mark/the distinction between the right to exclude and the right to use: Article 16 177 (iii) Public health limitations on trade mark rights: Articles 7 and 8 178-182 (iv) Additional powers to introduce legislation derogating from trade mark rights: Article 17 183 (v) Institutional encumbrances on use rights: Article 20 184 (vi) Restrictions on licensing practices due to competition law: Article 40 185 (vii) FCTC and TRIPS 186 (4) Directive 2008/95/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 22 October 2008 to approximate the laws of the Member States relating to trade marks (the “TMD”) 187-208 (i) The TMD is not intended to be exhaustive of trade mark rights 187 (ii) The interpretation of EU subordinate legislation: Always subject to superior rules and principles 188-194 (iii) The 2015 amendments to the TMD – the “recast” 195-208 (5) Council Regulation (EC) No. 207/2009 of 26 February 2009 or the Community Trade Mark (the “CTMR”) 209-223 (i) The CTMR 209 (ii) Trade marks are property rights: Recital 11 210 (iii) The unitary character of CTMs 211-213 (iv) Public policy limitations on CTM rights 214-216 (v) Preservation of right of Member State to apply national (public policy) rules to CTMs 217-218 (vi) The 2015 Amendments to the CTMR 219-223 (6) Directive 2004/48/EC of the European Parliament and of the Page 5 Judgment Approved by the court for handing down. Tobacco Packaging Council of 29 April 2004 on the enforcement of intellectual property rights (the “Enforcement Directive”) 224-239 (7) Directive 2014/40/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council of 3 April 2014 (the “TPD”) 225- (i) Legislative competence 225-226 (ii) Points deriving from the Recitals 227-233 (iii) The TPD is a “first” and “basic” measure of harmonisation: Recital 53 234 (iv) Relationship with international law/TRIPS, FCTC 235 (v) Prohibition on, inter alia, use of trade marks in relation to advertising of tobacco products 236-237 (vi) The right of Member States to introduce additional restrictions on advertising: Standardisation of the packaging of tobacco products 238 (vii) The five year mandatory review: Article 28 239-240 (8) Section 94 Children and Families Act 2014 241-247 (9) The Regulations 248-250 (i) Restrictions imposed on the external packaging and on the products themselves: Regulation 3-6 248 (ii) Preservation of registration rights: Article 13 249 (iii) The duty to conduct periodic reviews: Regulation 21 250 E. GROUND 1: THE REGULATIONS ARE UNLAWFUL CONSTITUTING THE IMPLEMENTATION OF AN UNLAWFUL POWER UNDER ARTICLE 24(2) TPD 251-275 (1) The issue 251-253 (2) The questions referred to the Court of Justice 254 (3) The issues determined in the case 255 (i) Factors relevant to interpretation: Health protection, the FCTC and the WHO Guidelines 256-260 (ii) The threat of an increase in illicit trade 261-263 (iii) The legality of Article 24(2) TPD: The right of Member States to adopt measures relating to tobacco control, including standardised packaging 264-266 (iv) The proportionality challenge: Margin of appreciation; the precautionary principle; impairment of the essence of fundamental rights 267-270 (v) The fourth limb of the proportionality test: Proportionality strictu sensu / fair balance 271-272 (vi) Subsidiarity 273-274 (4) Conclusions 275 F. GROUND 2: THE “LIMITED” WEIGHT ATTACHED TO THE CLAIMANTS’ EVIDENCE 276-404 (1) The issue 276-281 (2) The basic methodological principles 282 (i) Independence & bias/conflict of interest 283-286 (ii) Peer review 287-291 (iii)