The Association for the Defense of the Brand (Andema) assures that the implementation of plain packaging in the marketing of products ends up favoring counterfeiting and the black market. The organization has prepared a report to analyze the consequences of a measure that involves equalizing competition, which harms all links in the production chain.

Andema’s concern arises from the announcement by the Ministry of Health to implement the measure in tobacco, although the association fears that the strategy could be extended to other sectors. “Once plain packaging is a reality in 22 countries around the world, there could be a tendency to extend these limitations in marketing to other sectors, specifically in the field of food and beverages,” the document indicates.

In this sense, the association points out that many countries, both European and Latin American, are establishing measures that limit the promotion of consumer products. Andema points out two examples. In November 2020, the UK government announced plans to limit marketing of food and drink products and a complete ban on online advertising of products high in fat, salt or sugar. Recently, Ireland has presented a law with standards for the packaging of alcoholic beverages for application in 2026.

Plain packaging consists of removing all visual signs from the packaging and replacing them with a neutral color and the brand name in standard reduced type font. Andema assures that this measure prevents brands from performing their two basic functions: product identification and differentiation from the competition. Health assures that in this way its attractiveness is reduced.

The Andema report maintains that the measure goes against the effort made by the companies in its construction and the business values ??that are behind it. On the other hand, the study indicates that the strategy can have the opposite effect since the information and reputation associated with the brand is blurred, which turns the product into a basic one.

The document indicates that this type of measures has a negative impact on companies but also on their producers of raw materials, manufacturing, logistics operators or employees, among others. In addition, it also affects service providers associated with the management and dissemination of the brand, such as advertising and marketing agencies or the media. “This results in impoverishment throughout the value chain that harms all its links,” he says.

At a legal level, the emeritus professor at Esade-URL and scientific director of the Andema Study Center, Jordi Montaña, points out that this measure violates the rights related to industrial property recognized by Spanish legislation in Law 7/2001 on Trademarks, which may lead to its expiration for failing to comply with the minimum requirements for use, and in Law 3/1991, on Unfair Competition, by favoring confusion between competing companies.

Andema indicates that the experience of plain packaging in Australia, France and the United Kingdom is not positive because it has not met its objective of reducing the prevalence of consumption of the products in the objective but has meant a trivialization of consumption by converting them into commodities and has favored the illicit trade in counterfeits (an increase of between 20% and 30% is estimated).

The organization, which has among its members companies such as Adidas, Adam Foods, Chanel, Bimbo, Mesa del Tabaco, Isdin, Puig, Renfe and Telefónica, recalls that counterfeits are a serious social problem, which causes the destruction of jobs – more than 53,500 jobs per year, only in Spain – loss of sales and investment, causing damage to the national economy of more than 6.7 billion euros.