Setback for UK cigarette companies in EU challenge

Advocate-General Geelhoed of the European Court of Justice decided on 10 September 2002 that a European Union Directive designed to counter tobacco consumption was valid. This was a setback to two British tobacco companies in their efforts to overturn the Directive. British-American Tobacco and Imperial Tobacco had argued that the Directive which was passed in 2001 and is due to be implemented in national legislation during 2002 and 2003 was 'founded on an incorrect legal base'.

http://curia.europa.eu/en/actu/communiques/cp02/aff/cp0270en.htm http://curia.europa.eu/en/actu/communiques/cp02/aff/cp0270en.htm

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