Displaying tobacco products in retail stores is important for presenting the range of tobacco products which manufacturers legally produce for a country. As manufacturers introduce new products or replace existing ones, the display of products allows adult smokers to be informed of these developments.
Manufacturers - like retailers and consumers - would be significantly affected by a ban on the display of their products.
Competition - Innovation
Fair and vigorous competition is a hallmark of a free-market economy. When visibility of tobacco products is removed manufacturers will no longer be able to compete fairly for share of the adult smoker market. A ban favors the incumbent manufacturers and effectively freezes market shares… with one exception – illegal cigarettes!
“The point of sale display ban in Ireland will have no effect on youth smoking. It will, however, eliminate the ability of legitimate tobacco companies to make adult smokers aware of their brands. It will present a significant barrier to competition and leave the floodgates wide open for organized crime to take an even bigger share of the market with cheaper illegal products sold to who ever wants to buy irrespective of age”.
Anne Edwards, Director of Communications, PMI, October 2009.
Developing products that might reduce the health effects of smoking is a priority for tobacco manufacturers and under a display ban those products would have no chance of competing. Preventing those products from entering the market would deny adult smokers who cannot or are unwilling to quit, the choice of a potentially less harmful alternative.
Press Release
In Ireland a tobacco manufacturer in conjunction with a tobacco retailer have started legal proceedings against the government to seek to overturn the ban.
Click here for press release