Table 3 Ten mechanisms through which Industry might modify policy effects. We initially identified a potential set of mechanisms from classifications of marketing activities [17] and tobacco industry influence on policy [2]. We used these potential mechanisms to inform our analysis of the data from our survey and workshop; based on these data, we described a final set of ten mechanisms. We show the distribution of mechanisms across policy themes that was suggested by our data

Reduce effectiveness

Non-compliance

Industry choose not to comply i.e. break the rules.

x

x

Circumvention

Industry change to activities that are less regulated.

x

x

Adaptation

Industry adapt to new regulation e.g. by finding loopholes.

x

x

Avoidance

Industry avoid regulation i.e. moving out of the jurisdictional reach of regulations and continuing the same activities.

x

x

Strategic cooperation

Industry cooperate with public health objectives but modify their delivery to still achieve some of their own objectives.

x

x

x

Counter-measures

Pricing compensation

Industry cross-subsidise between the products whose pricing they control to weaken the impact of policies.

x

x

Passing-on costs to customers

Industry pass the costs of new policy onto customers via increases in sales prices, allowing maintenance of profits.

x

x

x

Distribution compensation

Industry increase the range and availability of products to maintain their customer base.

x

x

x

Promotion compensation

Industry increase product promotion e.g. compensatory changes to sales quantity, packaging, advertising and publicity.

x

x

x

Information interference

Industry driven mass communication and publicity casts doubt on the evidence that consumption harms health.

x

x