BAT v. UK Department of Health (Appeal)
British American Tobacco UK Ltd & Ors, R (on the application of) v The Secretary of State for Health [2016] EWCA Civ 1182 (30 November 2016)
- United Kingdom
- Nov 30, 2016
- Court of Appeal
British American Tobacco UK Ltd & Ors, R (on the application of) v The Secretary of State for Health [2016] EWCA Civ 1182 (30 November 2016)
An appeal against the earlier High Court judgment which upheld the UK's Standardised Packaging of Tobacco Products Regulations 2015.
British American Tobacco, Japan Tobacco International and Imperial Tobacco, together with the tipping paper company Tannpapier, appealed the High Court judgment of May 2016. The Appeal Court rejected all grounds of appeal.
The appeal concerned the nature of the claimants' trade mark rights, the extent to which the Regulations interfere with those rights and the lawfulness of any interference. The Claimants also appealed the High Court judgment on the proportionality of the Regulations. The case concerned issues of European Union law and the European Convention on Human Rights (the right to property in Article 1 of Protocol 1), as well as domestic common law.
The Appeal Court confirmed that a positive 'right to use' a registered trade mark did not exist in either domestic law, European Union law or international law. The Court also confirmed that the Regulations amounted to a control on the use of the tobacco trade marks and did not amount to a deprivation of those marks. The Regulations were a proportionate response to the public health objectives and struck a fair balance between the objectives and the interference with the claimant's rights.