The European Court of Justice rejected tobacco firms legal challenge against EU rules that force them to put graphic images on cigarette packages warning people of the dangers of smoking.

“The court finds that, in providing that each unit packet and the outside packaging must carry health warnings… the EU legislature did not go beyond the limits of what is appropriate and necessary,” the court said.

The challenge was brought by Philip Morris International and British American Tobacco claiming that the measures deprived them of property in the form of trademarks and was a violation of European intellectual property law, as the Independent reports.

But the European Court ruled that this argument was baseless. It said EU member states might choose to go further than the ruling to including health warnings on packs of cigarettes, by introducing standardized “plain” packaging.