Ireland’s plain packaging hearing to start April 13

The Commercial Court in Ireland is due on April 13 to begin hearing arguments in JTI Ireland’s lawsuit against the State, Attorney General Máire Whelan and Health Minister Leo Varadkar, seeking to halt the implementation of the country’s standardized tobacco packaging law.

As things stand, the law is scheduled to take effect in 2017, according to a story in the Irish Independent relayed by the TMA.

JTI Ireland is expected to argue that the state has no right to enact the legislation, which it says supersedes the provisions of the EU Tobacco Products Directive.