The Ban on the Café Crème Brand Name in France Has Been Lifted


COMPANY ANNOUNCEMENT
No. 22/2017

                                                                                                                                  Copenhagen, 17 July 2017

The Ban on the Café Crème Brand Name in France Has Been Lifted

The French Ministry of Health and Ministry of Budget have issued an official notice  annulling the ban issued in February 2017 against several brand names for tobacco products, including the Scandinavian Tobacco Group brand names Café Crème and Paradise  (cf. company announcements 3/2017 and 4/2017). The ban was supposed to take effect in February 2018.

The background for the annulment is a decision by the Conseil d'État (the French supreme administrative court) in a case not involving Scandinavian Tobacco Group. The French court set aside the provision in French law which let the authorities declare brands non-compliant with the law as part of a general process for the approval of product prices.

The Conseil d'État in the relevant case also decided to ask the EU Court of Justice about the application of article 13 in the EU Tobacco Products Directive to established trademarks, and whether an application of the article to trademarks respects the property right, the freedom of expression, the freedom to conduct a business and the principles of proportionality and legal certainty. Article 13, as implemented in French law, is the provision which was used to ban Café Crème and Paradise.  The EU Court of Justice on average takes 15 months to answer questions referred to it by the national courts. 

Scandinavian Tobacco Group expects the case, which it raised before the Conseil d'État in defense of its Café Crème brand name, to be closed by the court, as the brand is no longer banned.

For further information, please contact:

For media enquiries:
Kaspar Bach Habersaat, Director of Group Communications, phone: +45 7220 7152
or kaspar.bach@st-group.com.

For investor enquiries:
Torben Sand, Head of Investor Relations, phone: +45 7220 7126 or torben.sand@st-group.com.

About Scandinavian Tobacco Group

Scandinavian Tobacco Group A/S with its subsidiaries (the "Group") is a world leading producer of cigars and traditional pipe tobacco. The Group also produces fine-cut tobacco and sells tobacco-related accessories. The Group produces and sells 3 billion cigars and 5,000 tonnes of pipe and fine-cut tobacco annually. Scandinavian Tobacco Group believes it is the only company globally with a core strategic focus on production and distribution in all of these tobacco categories.

Scandinavian Tobacco Group holds market-leading positions in the machine-made cigar market in Europe, the handmade cigar market in the US, the online and catalogue retail sales of cigars in the US, the traditional pipe tobacco market globally and in selected fine-cut tobacco markets.

Scandinavian Tobacco Group has a diversified portfolio of more than 200 brands providing a complementary range of established global brands and local champions. In the cigar segment, the brand portfolio comprises Café Crème, La Paz, Macanudo, CAO, Partagas (US) and Cohiba (US). Pipe tobacco brands include Captain Black, Erinmore, Borkum Riff and W.Ø. Larsen, while leading fine-cut tobacco brands include Bugler, Break, Escort, Bali Shag and Tiedemanns.

As at 31 December 2016, the Group employed 7,600 people in the Dominican Republic, Honduras, Nicaragua, Indonesia, Europe, New Zealand, Australia, Canada and the US.

For more information please visit www.st-group.com.

Scandinavian Tobacco Group A/S
Sydmarken 42
DK-2860 Søborg
Denmark

CVR 31 08 01 85


Attachments

Scandinavian Tobacco Group, CC ban in France lifted, 17 July '17