Warning for duty free cigarettes sold without health warning


提交人：: John,发布人： : Editor on 2010-03-09

A legal case from India has highlighted the fact that cigarette packs sold in duty free shops usually need to show the health warnings required in that country and cartons sold without the correct labeling can be ruled not legal.

 
A petition by DFS India, which imports foreign cigarettes for sale only in the duty-free shops at the Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport in Maharashtra in the Metro Mumbai area, was admitted by the Bombay High Court last month.
 
Justice JN Patel and Justice BR Gavai are to give a final ruling on the case at a later date, but they refused to grant interim relief to the petitioner. The ruling means that the duty free status of cigarettes sold in the duty free shops of India have to show the health warnings on the individual packs, rather than on the outside cartons of standard duty free cartons, as is the case in most countries around the world.
 
Sales of most international duty free cigarette brands at Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport had been stopped because of the omission of local health warnings on the individual packs.
 
To date only one major tobacco supplier had fallen in line with pressure to apply the local market warnings to its international duty free packs at the airport. The shop operator - which is a combined venture of the multinational DFS Group and India and Dubai-based Flemingo - has been unable to sell other international brands since December following the confiscation of any stock that lacked the warnings.
 
DFS India had been applying stickers to cartons (but not individual packs) that conform to the regulations. It remains to be seen whether, other tobacco suppliers will be able to fall in line with the required labeling and set aside this production for the Indian duty free market. DFS India also has the option of appealing to the India Supreme Court.
 
DFS India had challenged the confiscation of its consignment of foreign cigarettes, which was made possible since they were not labeled for the local market according to the Cigarettes and Other Tobacco Products (Prohibition of Advertisement and Regulation of Trade and Commerce, Production, Supply and Distribution) Act, 2003.
 
Arguing for DFS, senior counsel Ravi Kadam told the court that the cigarettes were not manufactured in India, and hence, did not have the statutory warning. He explained that since the cigarettes were sold only in the departure area of the airport, they could only be taken by travellers to foreign destinations, and not brought into India. Arrivals shops at the airport sell only brands with the correct labeling, he added.
 
In his ruling Justice Patel clarified that, “export is alright, but selling from duty free is not export.”
 
The dispute arises from a case first filed in 2008 by Crusade Against Tobacco, an NGO, in which the central government assured the court that only cigarette packets bearing the statutory warning about the hazards of smoking would be imported and sold in India. In line with this ruling, the customs authorities had confiscated the DFS cigarette consignment that contained packets without the statutory warning.
 
“The seized packets are lying in a warehouse, as their sale has been stalled,” Venkatesh Dhond, the lawyer for DFS, said.