Tel Aviv Chamber of Commerce v. State of Israel – Ministry of Health, Israeli Knesset, and Knesset Economics Committee

The importer and manufacturers' forum of vaporization products at the Tel Aviv Chamber of Commerce challenged amendments to the Restriction of Advertising and Marketing of Tobacco Products Law passed in December 2018. The Tel Aviv Chamber of Commerce specifically challenged the extension of tobacco-related restrictions to e-cigarettes, including an advertising ban, a display ban, and plain packaging, as well as a nicotine concentration limit of 20mg/ml for e-liquids. This case was dismissed.

Tel Aviv Chamber of Commerce v. State of Israel – Ministry of Health et al., HC2951/19, Israel Supreme Court (2019).

  • Israel
  • Nov 26, 2019
  • Supreme Court
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Parties

Plaintiff Tel Aviv Chamber of Commerce

Defendant

  • State of Israel – Ministry of Health
  • Israeli Knesset
  • Knesset Economics Committee

Legislation Cited

Related Documents

Type of Litigation

Tobacco Control Topics

Substantive Issues

None

Type of Tobacco Product

"The issue of the partial exclusion of the printed press was discussed at length in the Knesset Economic Committee's deliberations, and the considerations for this exclusion were also presented to the Knesset plenum when approving the bill on the second and third reading. This exclusion was worded as follows: Because the main purpose of the law is to restrict advertising to smoking products that may encourage young people and minors to start using smoking products, and because young people are less exposed to print newspapers, the partial exclusion of print journalism, while imposing severe restrictions, will have limited impact the purpose of the law; On the other hand, given the difficult situation of the print press, which does not dispute its importance in a democratic society, there is a fear of a significant violation of its robustness as the ban will be applied to it fully, which would harm its income from advertising. It should be noted that representatives of the Ministry of Justice at the Economic Committee hearings as well as legal advice to the Knesset expressed their legal position that in light of the above considerations, there was no legal impediment to the Council's exclusion from the printed press. In the comments made by the Knesset and the government, the initiative also claims, among other things, that the petition does not establish any constitutional violation of the law, as the law has tightened the boundaries on printed press advertisements used before its legislation, and in any case, the amended law cannot be said to be the source of the alleged violation. It is also alleged that this is in fact a petition to order the Knesset to pass a law (A law that would exacerbate the restrictions on the printed press), which is consistently negated by this court's ruling. It has never been asserted that a constitutional right "not to have a health issue" has never been recognized as the petitioner's claim. Finally, it is argued that the partial exclusion of the printed press complies with the provisions of the limitation clause."