The Government of Uruguay modified the anti-tobacco regulations and allowed manufacturers to incorporate distinctive elements in cigarettes and inside the boxes in order to “determine the authenticity of the product.”
This is indicated by decree 282/022 signed by the president of the South American country, Luis Lacalle Pou.
“In the cigarette or inside the box, the manufacturer may incorporate distinctive elements intended to determine the authenticity of the product or its traceability in order to detect and combat its adulteration,” underlines one of the articles.
He adds that the filter “will be imitation cork or white, being biodegradable and it will be possible to incorporate the identification of the brand.”
Uruguay is considered a world pioneer in the fight against tobacco, not only because it was the first country to apply the Framework Convention for Tobacco Control more completely, but also because of the litigation that the firm brought for this reason. Phillip Morris and who won after six years of process.
Enacted in March 2008 during the government headed by the leftist Tabaré Vázquez, world-renowned for his fight against tobacco, Law 18,256 prohibited smoking in closed spaces for public use or workplaces, among other things.
It also vetoed the use “of logos or trademarks or brand elements of tobacco products” in products other than this one, the manufacture or sale of different items with a “tobacco producer shape” and the placement of brands in games.
Likewise, it prohibited false or misleading promotions on tobacco-related merchandise packages and forced all tobacco product packages to place “health warnings and images or pictograms that describe the harmful effects of tobacco consumption or other messages appropriate.”
On the other hand, enacted in April 2019, Decree 120/019 required the color of all tobacco product packaging to become unique and uniform.