23 November 2006
The European Court of Justice has today rejected a case that would have allowed consumers to buy cigarettes online at lower duties from other countries.
In countries such as the UK, where tobacco duty is high in order to reduce smoking rates, this could have led to a flood of cheap cigarettes into the country that would have posed a massive risk to health.
Maureen Moore, Chief Executive of ASH Scotland said,
¿Tobacco taxation has been one of the most effective ways for driving down the smoking rates in Scotland. If the European courts had decided to allow consumers to get round these taxes, there was a very good chance that smoking rates would have gone up. Today¿s ruling will avoid Scottish health policies being undermined.
¿Scotland is going in the right direction now when it comes to smoking. We went smoke-free on March 26th and that has been a great success. This ruling from Europe will allow us to continue building on that success.¿
ENDS
For further comment please phone ASH Scotland on 0131 225 4725 or out of hours on 07773 351878
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