ACCC resolves 'light' and 'mild' cigarette investigation with Imperial Tobacco
The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission has obtained court enforceable undertakings from Imperial Tobacco Australia Limited to remove its 'light', 'mild' and similar descriptors from its products. Imperial Tobacco will pay $1 million to the ACCC towards an upcoming consumer education campaign.
"This result successfully resolves the ACCC's investigations on this issue", ACCC Chairman, Mr Graeme Samuel, said today. "The undertakings provided by Imperial Tobacco, the third largest tobacco company in Australia with a 20 per cent market share, means that the ACCC has achieved an industry-wide outcome in response to the ACCC's concerns.
"The undertakings reflect those provided by British American Tobacco Australia Limited and Philip Morris Limited in May this year. It addresses the matters of most concern to the ACCC. These were the removal of the 'light' and 'mild' descriptors, the prevention of further similar conduct and the provision of significant further funding for a media campaign to educate and inform consumers that low yield cigarette brands are not likely to offer health or related benefits to consumers compared to higher yield brands.
"The ACCC welcomes Imperial Tobacco's decision to address the ACCC's concerns and to contribute $1 million to the ACCC's consumer education campaign".
The ACCC's investigations led it to the view that the tobacco companies, in using descriptors on cigarette brands and packaging such as 'light', 'mild', 'medium' etc and numbers (ie. '1','4','7' etc), represented to consumers through the descriptors and related marketing and packaging that there were health benefits in smoking those brands (known as low yield cigarettes due to claimed machine tested average lower yields of tar, nicotine and carbon monoxide) compared to higher yielding or full strength cigarette brands.
The ACCC believes such health claims for low yield cigarettes were likely to have breached the misleading and deceptive conduct provision, and other sections, of the Trade Practices Act 1974. The reasons included the fact that it was generally known that smokers can, and do, compensate for claimed lower yields by smoking cigarettes in ways that obtain higher yields of tar, nicotine and carbon monoxide than indicated on the packets.
Imperial Tobacco has provided court-enforceable undertakings to the ACCC to:
remove 'light' and 'mild' descriptors and related numbers from all cigarettes produced for Australian consumers by 1 October 2005 and by 24 October for imported cigarettes
not make claims about the health benefits of low yield cigarettes when compared to high yield cigarettes, and
pay $1 million to the ACCC to fund anti-smoking consumer education campaigns and programs concerning low yield cigarettes.
Following a lengthy investigation, the ACCC considered that BAT, Philip Morris and Imperial Tobacco Australia Limited had represented that low yield cigarettes marketed and packaged as 'light', 'mild', 'medium', 'ultra-light', 'micro' etc and/or brands bearing numbers such as '1', '4' etc referring to average levels of machine tested tar, nicotine and/or carbon monoxide emitted from cigarettes had certain health benefits in comparison to those marketed as regular or higher yield cigarettes.
In the ACCC's view, the claimed health benefits of low yield cigarettes compared to high yield cigarettes were misleading and likely to breach section 52 of the Trade Practices Act in that low yield cigarettes:
are not necessarily less harmful to the health of a smoker
are not necessarily a safer alternative
are not necessarily less addictive
do not necessarily reduce the risk of smoking-related diseases including lung cancer, cardio vascular diseases and emphysema
do not necessarily reduce the risk of exacerbating asthma and respiratory disease
do not necessarily assist a smoker to quit smoking cigarettes
do not necessarily assist the smoker in reducing the number of cigarettes consumed when compared to high yield cigarettes.
This was in part due to the ACCC finding that since at least the early 1990s tobacco companies and others have known that certain smoking behaviour (known as smokers' compensation) may deliver to the body higher levels of tar, nicotine and carbon monoxide than those levels produced by smoking testing machines, which are the levels stated on cigarette packaging as information messages. It is these levels which the tobacco companies have marketed and used as brand names such as '4', '8' etc.
Scientific studies indicate that smokers are likely to compensate for such 'light' cigarettes by inhaling more deeply, holding smoke in the lungs for longer, covering manufactured cigarette ventilation holes with the fingers or mouth, or smoking more frequently.
