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Japan Tobacco International (JTI), along with other tobacco companies operating in France, has been the subject of a barrage of escalating regulatory requirements that have seen the product it is able to provide to its customers change hugely over recent months. Mathilde Mason, head of legal France, explains that the pace of regulatory change was unprecedented. ‘In terms of the plain packaging laws’, says Mason, ‘this all developed very quickly in the French market. The first announcement was 2012, it was part of a health plan in 2014, finally passed by parliament in late 2015 and by January 2017 only plain cigarette packages were legal in France… we were the first market in the EU with plain packaging on shelves. As such, regulatory pressures have been very high’. In parallel to the development of these extreme regulatory constraints, which extended to ‘a complete advertising ban… and a complete ban on corporate philanthropic activities’, JTI’s corporate strategy has been to diversify into new product and related markets, with the legal team supporting the company in this. As such, Mason describes how the team had a huge amount of complex work to undertake on the launch of their e-cigarette products, a completely new product market with hybrid regulations featuring a mix of general consumer goods and e-cigarette regulations and no legal precedent. ‘With the e-cigarette business we are working with external counsel that are often unfamiliar with the product’, Mason says. They ‘don’t know the regulations since the environment is in the process of being shaped…this, combined with a very short timeframe for the launch led to several challenges that we overcame. We are now doing extremely well in this emerging market’. Mason, supported expertly by other team members including senior legal manager Aurore Tagliana, has managed to create a ‘hub of expertise’ in legal matters within JTI that specialise in a number of areas. In particular, the team’s efforts on behalf of the company in terms of lobbying of appropriate actors explaining the negative consequences and illegal nature of the plain packaging laws have been honed to a high degree of professionalism. ‘Working hand-in-hand and directly with renowned economists, law professors and the equivalent of QCs’, the JTI French legal team has been incredibly innovative in this area and has given itself the best possible chance of influencing challenging legislation to support the company in a manner that affects the company positively.