Plain Packaged Cigarettes: Is it a charter for counterfeiters ?

I see on the news today that the tobacco companies in Australia have lost a high court ruling to completely ban any type of logo or name on cigarette packets. The packets may now only be olive green with a rather horrible image of some cancer related ailment graphically depicted on the front.

My personal view on this, is that it will merely play into the hands of tobacco counterfeiters (which are already rife, both here and in Australia). They must be jumping with joy!

The average person will no longer be able to tell if they are buying genuine fags or something filled with grass clippings and camel dung!

PLUS, the government will instantly lose a huge dollop of tax revenue, but will obviously 'claim' the strategy has been a success!

The average person will no longer be able to tell if they are buying genuine fags or something filled with grass clippings and camel dung!

Buy from a reputable source and you're pretty much guaranteed to be buying legitimate fags.

Buy from a back street trader or in the pub and you take your chances.

Buy from a reputable source and you're pretty much guaranteed to be buying legitimate fags.

 

Buy from a back street trader or in the pub and you take your chances.

Pretty much?..... You think that counterfeit goods aren't already in the mainstream? All the plain packaging will do is make it much easier for them be to sold mainstream! Nobody will know what the hell they are buying including "reputable sources".

So you're saying that the cigarette counter at Morrisons, for example, sells fake goods and would sell fake cigs?

Where do you think big supermarkets get their goods from?

So you're saying that the cigarette counter at Morrisons, for example, sells fake goods and would sell fake cigs?

 

Where do you think big supermarkets get their goods from?

No, not knowingly. But if one brand looks exactly the same as another brand (fake or not) how are they going to know?

The ciggies come from wholesalers (warehouses). Of course every warehouse is squeaky clean and would never get hold of dodgy goods, and pass them off as genuine for a huge profit! Would they?

Good point actually. Don't know why they don't sell them in brown paper packets and have done with it. What the packet looked like had no bearing whatsoever on me having my first fag....but just fitting in with everyone else did. Mind you I WAS a late starter and stopped 20 years ago.

Good point actually. Don't know why they don't sell them in brown paper packets and have done with it. What the packet looked like had no bearing whatsoever on me having my first fag....but just fitting in with everyone else did. Mind you I WAS a late starter and stopped 20 years ago.

Thank you Joan! I mean, pretty soon they will all "not be on display"....as is the case already with supermarkets and such. So what's the point of making them all look exactly the same? It's just an open invite for organised crime to get a huge slice of the market. With relative impunity.

Thank you Joan! I mean, pretty soon they will all "not be on display"....as is the case already with supermarkets and such. So what's the point of making them all look exactly the same? It's just an open invite for organised crime to get a huge slice of the market. With relative impunity.

Are the current counterfeits easy to spot?

Are the current counterfeits easy to spot?

Some are, and others are not. Instead of having in the region of 200 corporate designs colours and logo's to copy. If they're all in plain packaging, it makes the job of counterfeiting much much simpler, and easy to get 'right'

See this link.

http://www.bat.com/group/sites/uk__3mnfen.nsf/vwPagesWebLive/DO8RSGJB?opendocument

Some are, and others are not. Instead of having in the region of 200 corporate designs colours and logo's to copy. If they're all in plain packaging, it makes the job of counterfeiting much much simpler, and easy to get 'right'

 

See this link.

 

http://www.bat.com/group/sites/uk__3mnfen.nsf/vwPagesWebLive/DO8RSGJB?opendocument

Obviously Britsh American want to be able to use their own branding so they have an agenda to be against plain packaging..whatabout if all the manufacturers had to use the same packaging with maybe a hologram or something to verify it?

I think it's a good question, but I still think removing brand identity would be a good thing overall.

With regards to high street shops selling counterfeits, it does happen, we're not just talking about dodgy geezers selling knock-offs in ropey boozers. I'm sure I recall that when there have been swoops on fake booze, illegal and dangerous vodka has been found in shops and off-licences, presumably bought from wholsalers.

I think it's a good question, but I still think removing brand identity would be a good thing overall.

 

With regards to high street shops selling counterfeits, it does happen, we're not just talking about dodgy geezers selling knock-offs in ropey boozers. I'm sure I recall that when there have been swoops on fake booze, illegal and dangerous vodka has been found in shops and off-licences, presumably bought from wholsalers.

More likely bought from a bloke round the back with a van...don't you think the shopkeeprs may be in on it too?