The world’s largest tobacco companies were instrumental in promoting Europe-wide, pro-business regulations that they used to delay health initiatives.

Analysis carried out by the University of Bath’s Tobacco Control Research Group (TCRG) has found that the companies played a key role in pushing the European commission’s Better Regulation agenda, which places business interests at the heart of policy drafting. They then used the new laws to block and delay a series of major health reforms, including UK introduction of plain packaging.

Under the terms of the Better Regulation agenda, which internal tobacco industry documents reveal was enthusiastically supported by British American Tobacco, European governments, including the UK, must conduct public consultations and impact assessments when introducing laws that affect business. The tobacco companies took advantage of these laws, using third parties and fake grassroots campaigns to swamp the consultations on anti-smoking initiatives such as the introduction of plain packaging. In addition, they were highly selective in what they submitted. All failed to include evidence – disclosed as a result of historic legal action – that they knew branded packaging was crucial to the marketing of their products, something they consistently denied in public.

For example, a document drawn up by Marlboro manufacturer Philip Morris in 1970 explained how pack recognition research was conducted by using hidden cameras on unsuspecting consumers in stores. It states: “As a prospective customer entered the area, he broke the photoelectric beam, immediately setting in motion the concealed camera which recorded the movement of his eyes and the final selection he made. From the thousands of films, the designers and advertising men were able to determine which package, which design and what combination of colours had the most appeal.”

Big tobacco played a key role in implementing Better Regulation and have exploited it to prevent life-saving regulations Professor Anna Gilmore

Leaked documents show that Philip Morris identified the Better Regulation laws as a key weapon in its battle to derail the 2014 EU tobacco products directive which introduced large-scale health warnings on cigarette packets and a ban on flavoured cigarettes and packs of 10 –both popular marketing initiatives with young smokers. The tobacco giant employed more than 160 lobbyists and spent ¤1.25bn opposing the directive’s introduction. The European commission department responsible for drawing up the directive was swamped with 85,000 submissions.Many of the claims that they made were based on dubious evidence. According to the TCRG analysis of the submissions, “the research was of significantly lower quality than research supporting the measure. For example, the tobacco companies’ arguments were not supported by any peer-reviewed journal articles about standardised packaging.” Nevertheless, the tobacco giants’ tactics resulted in a three-year delay in the introduction of plain packaging in the UK.Anna Gilmore, Professor of Public Health and Director of the TCRG, said their analysis highlighted the need for full transparency when it came to public consultations.

“The tobacco companies played a key role in implementing Better Regulation, anticipating that it would help them delay, block or weaken public health legislation,” Gilmore said.

“They have now gone on to exploit it to prevent life-saving regulations. They are flooding consultations with massive numbers of responses to give a totally misleading impression of opposition to public health policies. They then cite wholly misleading evidence that they have effectively manufactured to support their case.” ”