Philip Morris is mounting a legal challenge to Ireland's ban on advertising or displaying tobacco products in shops, reported Reuters on Monday.

Philip Morris Limited, Philip Morris Products S.A. and Maurice Timony, an independent retailer from Donegal, have announced that they will file a joint lawsuit seeking to overturn the ban on display of tobacco products at retail stores in Ireland.
The lawsuit will be filed before the High Court in Dublin on 6 October 2009. Plaintiffs will be challenging the tobacco display ban on the grounds that it severely restricts their ability to provide trade and services thus violating Irish constitutional law and EU law. "We support strict tobacco regulation but this legislation just serves to hand the tobacco business over to smugglers and counterfeiters," said Anne Edwards, a spokeswoman for Philip Morris. "Ireland already has one of the worst illegal cigarette problems in the EU and this ban is making it worse."
Ireland was one of the first nations to ban smoking in the workplace in 2004 and groups of people puffing cigarettes outside pubs and restaurants are a familiar sight across the country. The country's rules on shop advertising, introduced in June, follow similar measures in Iceland and parts of Canada. (pi)