Jean-Marc Lévy

Jean-Marc Lévy was Director of Marketing at British American Tobacco (BAT) until his retirement from BAT on 31 December 2014.¹²
In July 2016, he briefly joined the Board of Reynolds American (RAI) but left in July 2017, around the same time BAT acquired RAI.³

Long-Standing Career with BAT

Lévy worked for BAT from 1993 to 2014, and held several senior positions including:

• Director, Special Projects (September – December 2014)
• Group Marketing Director (2009 – 2014)
• Regional Director Western Europe (2008 – 2009)
• Area Director Central & Eastern Europe (2004 – 2008)
• Area Director Asia Pacific North (2002 – 2004)
• Global Brand Director (1999 – 2002)
• Marketing Director Indonesia (1997 -1999)
• Marketing Director Switzerland (1993-1996)

Plain Packaging “Could Fuel the Black Market”

In BAT’s 2013 Sustainability Focus Report, Lévy was quoted as criticising plain packaging, arguing that government should undertake more research before introducing new policies.⁴ Lévy further argued that plain packaging could have unintended consequences, for example it “could fuel the black market”, and that it would harm intellectual property rights.
Lévy’s arguments are not new. The tobacco industry has unsuccessfully used many of such arguments to try undermine tobacco legislation in other parts of the world, including the Uganda Tobacco Control Bill 2014, and plain packaging legislation in Australia and the United Kingdom, and the 2018 Tobacco Bill in South Africa.

TobaccoTactics Resources

• British American Tobacco
• Plain Packaging
• : Tobacco Industry Marketing