LEGISLATION to force cigarettes to be sold in plain packaging could cost the Scottish Government millions of pounds in compensation, it has been claimed.

A major tobacco firm is getting legal advice on opposing the plan to sell cigarettes in uniform packs with graphic health warnings.

The industry has been given advice which could tie up the plan in court for years and, according to one lawyer, Scotland could end up in a "lose-lose situation".

One tobacco firm has sought legal advice over possible grounds to challenge when the Scottish Government brings forward a Bill.

The government said it will not be put off from introducing health improving measures.

A solicitor with a Glasgow law firm has provided potential details for a case and said compensation could be costly.

A challenge would likely claim that the law is outwith the remit of the Scottish Parliament and that the measure will not be effective in improving health to qualify it as competent.

If that fails, then a case for compensation could be brought over loss of brand use.

The advice supplied to the one tobacco firm focuses on the European Convention on Human Rights concerning property. The lawyer said if the property, including intellectual property which covers brand identity, is deprived then the owner is entitled to compensation.

Studies of global brand values put the most high-profile tobacco brand, Marlboro, in the top 10 with the likes of Apple, Coca Cola and McDonalds. Its global worth is estimated at £44billion. If all tobacco firms were to be compensated the lawyer said the costs to the government would be high.

The government said the regulation concerns marketing not intellectual property.

Its spokeswoman said: "We are clear that the Scottish Parliament has the competence to legislate on matters of public health, such as standardised packaging, and remain comm-itted to introducing this policy.

"We will not be deterred by the tobacco industry. They have failed before in challenging the Scottish Parliament's ability to legislate on public health, as we saw in the Supreme Court's decision to dismiss Imperial Tobacco's challenge on the tobacco display ban.

"We will now identify a time-scale to introduce legislation on standardised packaging to the Scottish Parliament."

"The purpose of the legislation is to improve public health by regulating the marketing of tobacco, not to regulate intellectual property."

stewart.paterson@eveningtimes.co.uk