Tobacco plain packaging
A Snapshot
New legislation- key dates
Your roles and responsibilities
All tobacco products must comply
Supply and trading tips
About plain packaging
About the new health warnings
Enforcing the law
More information
New legislation- key dates
Plain packaging and the new and expanded health warnings are part of the Australian Government’s efforts to reduce smoking rates.From 1 October 2012:
- All tobacco products manufactured or packaged in Australia, for the Australian market, must be in plain packaging.
- All tobacco products sold, offered for sale or otherwise supplied in Australia must be in plain packaging and be labelled with the new and expanded health warnings.
Your roles and responsibilities
From 1 December 2012, it is your responsibility to ensure all tobacco products you buy, sell, offer for sale or otherwise supply in Australia meet the tobacco plain packaging and new health warning requirements.It is your responsibility to understand all of the tobacco plain packaging and new health warning requirements so you can meet your obligations under the laws.
You should not rely on your manufacturer or supplier to provide you with tobacco products that comply with the new laws.
All tobacco products must comply
The plain packaging and new health warning requirements will apply to all tobacco products,including but not limited to cigarettes, loose leaf tobacco, cigars, waterpipe tobacco and bidis.Top of page
Supply and trading tips
To effectively manage your stock during the transition to plain packaging and the new health warnings:- Find out when your tobacco supplier can start supplying you with plain packaged tobacco products labelled with the new health warnings.
- Think carefully about how much non-plain packaged product with the old health warnings you hold and purchase from now on. This will minimise the quantity of non-compliant stock you may have left which will be illegal to sell after 1 December 2012.
- Find out from your tobacco supplier what will happen to any non-compliant stock you have after 1 December 2012 – for example, can you return that stock to your supplier?
- If you continue to import tobacco products in non-compliant packaging, you will need to ensure they are repackaged to meet the requirements of the Tobacco Plain Packaging Act 2011, the Tobacco Plain Packaging Regulations 2011 and the Competition and Consumer (Tobacco) Information Standard 2011.
About plain packaging
The Tobacco Plain Packaging Act 2011 and the Tobacco Plain Packaging Regulations 2011 set out the detailed plain packaging specifications, including:- a requirement that tobacco retail packaging is a specified drab dark brown colour in a matt finish
- a prohibition on tobacco industry logos, brand imagery, colours and promotional text on tobacco products and retail packaging, other than brand and variant names in a standard colour, position, font style and size
- restrictions on the size of tobacco retail packaging
- restrictions on packaging format and materials for cigarette retail packaging.
About the new health warnings
The new and expanded health warnings required to appear on all tobacco retail packaging are specified in the Competition and Consumer (Tobacco) Information Standard 2011. The Information Standard:- increases the health warning size to 75 per cent of the front surface of most tobacco product packaging
- maintains the health warning size of 90 per cent of the back surface of cigarette packaging
- increases the health warning size to 75 per cent of the back surface of most other tobacco product packaging
- requires health warnings on packaging of cigars sold as single items, previously exempt from the requirements.
Enforcing the law
From 1 December 2012, if you buy, sell, offer for sale or otherwise supply tobacco products in Australia that do not comply with the plain packaging or new health warning requirements, significant criminal or civil penalties may apply.Any enforcement action undertaken for breaches of the Tobacco Plain Packaging Act 2011 will be proportionate to the seriousness of the breach.
You should refer to the legislation for more information about offences and penalties.
More information
You should seek your own independent advice if you are unsure of your obligations under the plain packaging or new health warnings legislation, or are having difficulty understanding the requirements.D0832 July 2012
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The content in this publication is copyright. Apart from any use as permitted under the Copyright Act 1968, no part may be reproduced by any process without prior written permission from the Commonwealth.
This brochure is intended to provide general information on the Tobacco Plain Packaging Act 2011, the Tobacco Plain Packaging Regulations 2011 and the Competition and Consumer (Tobacco) Information Standard 2011. It should not be used as a substitute for legal or other expert advice. All information in this publication is correct as at July 2012.
What's happening
Changes to the sale of tobacco products
The Tobacco Plain Packaging Information Kit provides practical information on the responsibilities and obligations of retailers and other suppliers of tobacco products under the new Tobacco Plain Packaging Act 2011.
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eHealth.gov.au is your gateway to Australia's personally controlled electronic health record system, linking you to information about eHealth records and the system itself. Visit www.ehealth.gov.au
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