( CNN ) -- In a decision announced Wednesday , Australia 's high court upheld the plain packaging act , which says that tobacco products must be in plain packaging without logos and bear graphic health warnings as of December 1 . The government immediately hailed the ruling , calling it a `` watershed moment for tobacco control around the world . '' `` The message to the rest of the world is big tobacco can be taken on and beaten , '' Attorney General Nicola Roxon said in a statement . `` Without brave governments willing to take the fight up to big tobacco , they 'd still have us believing that tobacco is neither harmful nor addictive . '' Opinion : Australian packaging laws misguided . Australia is the first nation in the world to require `` plain packaging '' for tobacco . Only the brand and variant name will differ against a drab , dark-color background . Other government initiatives against tobacco have included a 25 % excise in 2010 , restrictions on Internet advertising , and more than $ 85 million in anti-smoking social marketing campaigns . According to the World Health Organization , tobacco kills nearly 6 million people a year , 10 % of them from secondhand smoke exposure . The WHO says the death toll could rise to more than 8 million a year by 2030 without urgent action . Tobacco companies , including Imperial Tobacco , Philip Morris Limited and British American Tobacco , had challenged the act as unconstitutional , saying the government was unfairly taking its intellectual property . The high court posted the decision on its website , but not the full opinion . That will be published at a later date , it said . `` Any company in similar circumstances , when faced with the loss of brands worth billions of dollars , would challenge such laws , '' said Sonia Stewart , spokeswoman for Imperial Tobacco , an Australian company , in a statement . `` Our biggest concern is the effect plain packaging will have on illicit trade , '' Stewart said . `` Plain packaging will make Australia a magnet for the growing black market in tobacco , which already costs the Australian Government nearly $ 1 billion per annum in lost revenue . '' In a similarly worded statement , British American Tobacco said only organized crime gangs will gain from an illegal market . The policy , said spokesman Scott McIntyre , `` will actually increase smoking rates particularly in young people who 'll have greater access to cheap illegal cigarettes . '' Imperial Tobacco and PML said the legal fight was not over , citing challenges by three governments -- Honduras , the Dominican Republic and Ukraine -- within the World Trade Organization . PML is also suing Australia for breaching the Bilateral Investment Treaty with Hong Kong . Public health advocates , however , hailed the ruling , which conforms with the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control , to which Australia is a party . Richard Daynard , a professor at Northeastern University School of Law in Boston and president of the school 's Public Health Advocacy Institute , called the Australian ruling `` extraordinarily encouraging . '' `` It means that governments are pretty much free to do what they feel is necessary to protect their population from tobacco marketing , including marketing on packages . In other words , it 's a blow for public health . '' Daynard said Philip Morris has taken the lead in litigation against governments that take strong anti-tobacco control measures . `` They have a case against the government of Uruguay for requiring that 80 % of the packages have warnings on them , '' he said in a telephone interview . Beyond Australia . Last year the United States unveiled nine graphic health warning labels that must cover half the area of cigarette packages by this September , joining 41 other countries that mandate pictorial warnings . Tobacco use is the nation 's leading preventable cause of death , responsible for about one in five deaths -- or 443,000 -- a year , according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention . Additionally , cigarette smoking is responsible for $ 96 billion in direct medical costs and $ 97 billion in lost productivity each year , according to the U.S. government . Should smoking trigger an R rating ? Five tobacco manufacturers , including R.J. Reynolds , have challenged the requirements , saying they violate First Amendment rights . In February , a federal judge sided with the companies , and the Obama administration 's appeal is pending . In a report last year , the CDC found in a 14-nation study that graphic health warnings on cigarette packages have led a `` substantial '' number of smokers to consider quitting . The World Health Organization says 19 countries meet the `` best practice for pictorial warnings , '' which include warnings in the local language and which must cover at least half of cigarette packages . Less than 11 % of the world 's population is protected by comprehensive national smoke-free laws , it says . Previously on CNN.com : CDC unveils graphic ads to combat smoking .
` ` It 's extraordinarily encouraging , '' says public health advocate of ruling . The high court upheld its decision , but not the opinion , which will be given at later date . Tobacco firms say it will only ban illicit trade while focusing on intellectual property . Tobacco kills nearly 6 million people a year , World Health Organization says .