HEADLINES

• Cash and carry operators unhappy with 'over the top' display ban rule
• Welsh Assembly Member call to protect children from smoking dangers
• Poorest pay the most for tobacco and alcohol taxes
• Blank cigarette packets will prove a multi-billion drag on the Treasury
• Philip Morris to fight Australia plain packaging laws
• Whiff of despair circles Australia's cigar shops

• Cash and carry operators unhappy with 'over the top' display ban rule

  Wholesalers are critical of a rule in next year's tobacco display ban which, they claim, will leave cash & carry customers in England having to cover up cigarettes as they move from the tobacco room to the main depot.

  The Federation of Wholesale Distributors has warned that wholesalers could fall foul of the law if non-tobacco customers see cigarettes on trolleys, and has advised C&C operators that "tobacco products must be covered while being moved through the premises to the till point".  

  Source: The Grocer - 17 December 2011
  Link: http://bit.ly/sKecjR

• Welsh Assembly Member call to protect children from smoking dangers

  South Wales east AM Lindsay Whittle said he struggles to understand why there have been debates in the Assembly about smacking and piercing children but nothing on smoking in cars where children are present.

   Mr Whittle has called for smoking in cars to be banned.

  Source: South Wales Argus - 19 December 2011
  Link: http://bit.ly/smmubj

• Poorest pay the most for tobacco and alcohol taxes

  According to ONS figures, the UK’s poorest households spend the highest proportion of their disposable income on cigarette and alcohol taxes whilst the wealthiest 20% pay the largest sum in real terms.

  Source: Fresh Business Thinking - 19 December 2011
  Link: http://bit.ly/sYebjX

• Blank cigarette packets will prove a multi-billion drag on the Treasury

  Journalist Mark Leftly argues that plain packaging will make cigarettes easier to counterfeit and casts doubts on their effectiveness to discourage smoking.

  Source: The Independent - 18 December 2011
  Link: http://ind.pn/t7j8jE

• Philip Morris to fight Australia plain packaging laws

  Philip Morris has become the third tobacco giant to file a legal challenge against new Australian laws that will force tobacco products to be sold in dull, plain packaging from December next year.

  Source: Yahoo!/Reuters - 20 December 2011
  Link: http://yhoo.it/u3X0DJ

• Whiff of despair circles Australia's cigar shops

  Cuban Ambassador to Australia Pedro Monson Barata has accused Canberra of ignoring trademark protection and affecting free trade, saying that new tobacco retailing rules stand to reduce the sales of Cuban cigars in Australia.

  Source: M&C - 20 December 2011
  Link: http://bit.ly/vT9pBv