Industry opposition: predicted effects on illicit tobacco

Industry claims about likely effects on illicit tobacco

Media releases

British American Tobacco Australia, Taxpayers lose $1 billion while criminals make millions,  2011. Available from http://www.bata.com.au/group/sites/bat_7wykg8.nsf/vwPagesWebLive/DO7WZEX6/$FILE/medMD8EHAKD.pdf?openelement

British American Tobacco Australia, Sydney number one hot spot for illegal tobacco,  2011: Sydney. Available from http://www.bata.com.au/group/sites/BAT_7WYKG8.nsf/vwPagesWebLive/DO7WZEX6?opendocument&SKN=1

British American Tobacco Australia, $1 billion in lost taxes could fill big budget hole,  2012, BATA: Sydney. Available from http://www.bata.com.au/group/sites/bat_7wykg8.nsf/vwPagesWebLive/DO8RG8JK/$FILE/medMD8TWTVA.pdf?openelement

British American Tobacco Australia, Booming illegal tobacco costs government billions, Media release 2013, BATA: Sydney. Available from http://www.bata.com.au/group/sites/BAT_9RNFLH.nsf/vwPagesWebLive/DOA3CLYP?opendocument

British American Tobacco Australia, Latest report into Australia's illegal tobacco problem, 25 November 2014. Availalbe from:  http://www.bata.com.au/group/sites/BAT_9RNFLH.nsf/vwPagesWebLive/DOA3CJ8E?opendocument

British American Tobacco Australia. Tobacco black market hits new high. Sydney: BATA, 4 May 2015. Available from: http://www.bata.com.au/group/sites/BAT_7WYKG8.nsf/vwPagesWebLive/DO9T9289?opendocument

Consultancy reports

Deloitte., Illicit trade of tobacco in Australia: Report for 2011: A report prepared for British American Tobacco Australia Limited, Philip Morris Limited and Imperial Tobacco Australia Limited, May 2012, 2012, Prepared for British American Tobacco Australia Limited, Philip Morris Limited and Imperial Tobacco Australia Limited: Sydney. Available from http://www.bata.com.au/group/sites/BAT_9RNFLH.nsf/vwPagesWebLive/DOA3CLYP?opendocument

Deloitte. Illicit trade of tobacco in Australia: Update for 2012: a report prepared for British American Tobacco Australia Limited, Philip Morris Limited and Imperial Tobacco Australia Limited. Sydney: British American Tobacco Australia, December 2012, 2012 (Dec). Available from: http://www.bata.com.au/group/sites/BAT_7WYKG8.nsf/vwPagesWebLive/DO9879X3?opendocument&SKN=1.

KPMG LLP. Illicit tobacco in Australia: 2013 full-year report. Sydney 2014. Available from: http://www.bata.com.au/group/sites/BAT_9RNFLH.nsf/vwPagesWebLive/DOA3CJ8E?opendocument

KPMG LLP. Illicit tobacco in Australia: 2014 full year report. Sydney: BATA, 2015. Available from: http://www.bata.com.au/group/sites/BAT_9RNFLH.nsf/vwPagesWebLive/DOA3CJ84?opendocument

KPMG LLP. Illicit tobacco in Australia: 2014 and 2015 half year reports no longer on line

KPMG LLP. Illicit tobacco in Australia: 2015 full-year report. Sydney 2016. Available from: https://home.kpmg.com/content/dam/kpmg/pdf/2016/04/australia-illict-tobacco-2015.pdf

KPMG LLP. Illicit tobacco in Australia: 2016 full-year report. London 2017. Available from: https://home.kpmg.com/uk/en/home/insights/2017/04/illicit-tobacco-in-australia-2016.html

KPMG LLP. Illicit tobacco in Australia: 2017 full-year report. London 2018. Available from: https://assets.kpmg.com/content/dam/kpmg/uk/pdf/2018/05/australia_illicit_tobacco_report_2017.pdf

Cancer Council critiques of these documents

Quit Victoria, Illicit trade of tobacco in Australia: a report prepared by Deloitte for British American Tobacco, Philip Morris Ltd and Imperial Tobacco: a critique prepared March 2011, updated August and November 2011,  2011, Cancer Council Victoria: Melbourne, Australia. Available here. 

Quit Victoria, Illicit trade of tobacco in Australia: a report prepared by Deloitte for British American Tobacco, Philip Morris Ltd and Imperial Tobacco: a critique prepared May 2012,  2012, Cancer Council Victoria: Melbourne, Australia. Available here.

Quit Victoria, Critique of, Illicit tobacco in Australia: half year report, 2013 by KPMG LLP,  2013, Cancer Council Victoria: Melbourne, Australia. Available here.

Quit Victoria, Critique of, Illicit tobacco in Australia: full year report, 2013 by KPMG LLP,  2014, Cancer Council Victoria: Melbourne, Australia. Available here.

Quit Victoria, Critique of, Illicit tobacco in Australia: half year report, 2014 by KPMG LLP,  2014, Cancer Council Victoria: Melbourne, Australia. Available here .

Quit Victoria, Critique of, Illicit tobacco in Australia: full year report, 2014 by KPMG LLP,  2015, Cancer Council Victoria: Melbourne, Australia. Available here. 

No critique produced in 2015.

Quit Victoria. Critique of, Illicit tobacco in Australia: full year report 2016 by KPMG LLP, 2017, Cancer Council Victoria: Melbourne, Australia. Available here.

Quit Victoria. Critique of, Illicit tobacco in Australia: full year report 2017 by KPMG LLP, 2018, Cancer Council Victoria: Melbourne, Australia. Available here.

Observed effects on illicit tobacco: after compared with before introduction of legislation

Industry claims

British American Tobacco Australia, More chop chop while illegal tobacco overall drops, Media release 2013: Sydney. Available from http://www.bata.com.au/group/sites/BAT_7WYKG8.nsf/vwPagesWebLive/DO9879X3?opendocument&SKN=1

Philip Morris International. 2013 KPMG report: Black market in Australia reaches record highs. PMI, 2014. Available from: http://www.pmi.com/eng/media_center/media_kit/Pages/2013_kpmg_australia.aspx

Results of research studies

Scollo M, Bayly M, and Wakefield M. Availability of illicit tobacco in small retail outlets before and after the implementation of Australian plain packaging legislation. Tobacco Control, 2014. Available from: http://tobaccocontrol.bmj.com/content/early/2014/04/10/tobaccocontrol-2013-051353.abstract

Scollo M, Bayly M, and Wakefield M. Availability of chop-chop in Victorian tobacconists following introduction of plain packaging. Australian & New Zealand Journal of Public Health, 2014; 38(3):293-4. Available from: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24890492

Scollo M, Zacher M, Durkin S, and Wakefield M. Early evidence about the predicted unintended consequences of standardised packaging of tobacco products in Australia: a cross-sectional study of the place of purchase, regular brands and use of illicit tobacco. BMJ Open, 2014; 4(8). Available from: http://bmjopen.bmj.com/citmgr?gca=bmjopen%3B4%2F8%2Fe005873

Scollo M, Zacher M, Coomber K, and Wakefield M. Use of illicit tobacco following introduction of standardised packaging of tobacco products in Australia: results from a national cross-sectional survey. Tobacco Control, 2015; 24:ii76-ii81. Available from: http://tobaccocontrol.bmj.com/content/24/Suppl_2/ii76.full  

Other useful sites concerning illicit tobacco

University of Bath, Tobacco smuggling, Tobacco Tactics, http://www.tobaccotactics.org/index.php/Smuggling

News coverage

On the UK High Court's rejection of the tobacco industry's application for a judicial review into the Government's plain packaging legislation: 

The court heard that the industry had commissioned two reports from KPMG codenamed “Project Star” and “Project Sun”, which purportedly showed that plain packaging was responsible for a rise in illicit sales of cigarettes in Australia. But in a letter to public health minister Jane Ellison, dated 2 May 2014 and released under the Freedom of Information Act, Robin Cartwright, a KPMG partner, admitted that: “The report we released recently, Illicit Tobacco in Australia – 2013 Half Year Report, has been somewhat misrepresented by others, without our consent, to suggest it supports the contention that plain paper packaging could lead of itself to an increase in tobacco smuggling and duty avoidance.”

Doward J. How big tobacco lost its final fight for hearts, lungs and minds. The Guardian, 22 May 2016. Available from: http://www.theguardian.com/society/2016/may/22/big-tobacco-final-fight-cigarette-branding-uk