The EU's top court has backed a ban on the terms "light" and "mild" being used on cigarette packets by saying they could be misleading.
In a move welcomed by the European Commission, the European Court of Justice (ECJ) turned down a case brought by British American Tobacco (Investments) and Imperial Tobacco.
"The court upholds the validity of the directive on the manufacture, presentation and sale of tobacco products," the Luxembourg-based court said in a statement.
The two tobacco groups had challenged the transposition of the EU directive into British law at the High Court in London, which referred the case to the ECJ.
The EU court said that Brussels was right to ban the use of terms like "mild" on cigarette packets because they could mislead smokers into thinking cigarettes were not harmful to health.
AFP