Sinclair Collis Ltd. v. Lord Advocate for Scotland
A tobacco vending machine company challenged the legality of a section of a tobacco control law prohibiting tobacco vending machines. The petitioner argued that the law violates the right to free movement of goods between EU member states and infringes their right to property. In this appellate decision, the court looked to the treaties in addition to European Court of Justice and UK case law to test the proportionality of the Scottish law. Agreeing with the lower court’s finding that the law was necessary and appropriate to the goal of protecting the health and safety of young people, the court upheld the ban on vending machines for tobacco products.
Sinclair Collis LTD v. The Lord Advocate [2012] CSIH 80 P576/10
Tobacco companies or front groups may challenge any legislative or regulatory measure that affects their business interests. Unlike public interest litigation, these cases seek to weaken health measures. These cases frequently involve the industry proceeding against the government. For example, a group of restaurant owners challenging a smoke free law as unconstitutional.
Measures restricting tobacco sales to or by minors, as well as other retail restrictions relating to point-of-sale, candy and toys resembling tobacco products, vending machines, or free distribution.
(See FCTC Art. 16)
A violation of the right to carry on trade, business, or profession of a person’s choice. This right may also be called the right to free enterprise or economic freedom. The industry may argue that a business should be able to conduct its business without government regulation, including whether or not to be smoke free.
A claim of an infringement of any international trade agreement, including General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT), Technical Barriers to Trade (TBT), Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS), or bilateral treaties.
Regulatory measures consisting of political actions designed to punish the tobacco industry or tobacco users. The industry may argue such arbitrary and capricious regulations will fail to achieve the stated objective. They may also argue that the measures are too extreme, prohibitively expensive, and violate the principle of proportionality.
A discussion on whether the regulations impose an undue burden on the tobacco industry. This argument may involve the costs of implementing regulatory measures.
Type of Tobacco Product
None
Limitations regarding the use of quotes The quotes provided here reflect statements from a specific decision. Accordingly, the International Legal Consortium (ILC) cannot guarantee that an appellate court has not reversed a lower court decision which may influence the applicability or influence of a given quote. All quotes have been selected based on the subjective evaluations undertaken by the ILC meaning that quotes provided here may not accurately or comprehensively represent a given court’s opinion or conclusion, as such quotes may have originally appeared alongside other negative opinions or accompanying facts. Further, some quotes are derived from unofficial English translations, which may alter their original meaning. We emphasize the need to review the original decision and related decisions before authoritatively relying on quotes. Using quotes provided here should not be construed as legal advice and is not intended to be a substitute for legal counsel on any subject matter in any jurisdiction. Please see the full limitations at https://www.tobaccocontrollaws.org/about.
"The Government and Parliament had a substantial quantity of material to demonstrate the dangers of smoking by young persons, especially relative to their health in later life. They had a legitimate objective in reducing that smoking. The material demonstrated that many young persons obtained cigarettes from vending machines, which had no age‐restriction mechanisms to prevent purchase. It was an appropriate or suitable step, as part of a wider effort to reduce smoking, to stop young persons from obtaining cigarettes from that source. The material available suggested that age‐restriction mechanisms were not effective in respect that, even in a relatively calm environment, 20% of attempts by young persons to secure a purchase were successful. The Government and Parliament were entitled to the view therefore
that such mechanisms were not effective to prevent sales to under eighteens and that only a complete prohibition would secure the legitimate objective of reducing sales by cutting off one source of supply. They were entitled to the view that the ingenuity of youth was quite adequate to circumvent age‐restriction mechanisms, especially in dark, busy public houses and night clubs. The court does not consider that the Government or Parliament required to conduct a series of empirical scientific experiments to establish the obvious but, in any event, the statistical material, flawed in parts as it might have been, was sufficient to justify this type of conclusion."
Limitations regarding the use of quotes The quotes provided here reflect statements from a specific decision. Accordingly, the International Legal Consortium (ILC) cannot guarantee that an appellate court has not reversed a lower court decision which may influence the applicability or influence of a given quote. All quotes have been selected based on the subjective evaluations undertaken by the ILC meaning that quotes provided here may not accurately or comprehensively represent a given court’s opinion or conclusion, as such quotes may have originally appeared alongside other negative opinions or accompanying facts. Further, some quotes are derived from unofficial English translations, which may alter their original meaning. We emphasize the need to review the original decision and related decisions before authoritatively relying on quotes. Using quotes provided here should not be construed as legal advice and is not intended to be a substitute for legal counsel on any subject matter in any jurisdiction. Please see the full limitations at https://www.tobaccocontrollaws.org/about.
A tobacco vending machine company challenged the legality of a section of a tobacco control law prohibiting tobacco vending machines. The petitioner argued that the law violates the right to free movement of goods between EU member states and infringes their right to property. In this appellate decision, the court looked to the treaties in addition to European Court of Justice and UK case law to test the proportionality of the Scottish law. Agreeing with the lower court’s finding that the law was necessary and appropriate to the goal of protecting the health and safety of young people, the court upheld the ban on vending machines for tobacco products.