Internet Law News

Utah Signs On Plan To Extinguish Illegal Internet Cigarette Sales

Attorney General Mark Shurtleff announced today that Lorillard Tobacco Company has agreed to take major steps to prevent illegal cigarette sales over the Internet and through the mail. Lorillard is voluntarily adopting protocols as part of an agreement with 33 Attorneys General across the country. A similar agreement was reached with Philip Morris USA in January.

"Kids can't start smoking if they can't get cigarettes. Lorillard is taking some serious measures to keep minors away from tobacco," says Shurtleff. The protocols include:

• Terminating cigarette shipments to any of Lorillard's direct customers found engaging in illegal Internet and mail order sales.
• Reducing tobacco shipments to direct customers found engaging in the illegal re-sale of Lorillard's cigarettes to the Internet vendors.
• Suspending from the company's incentive programs any retailer found engaging in such illegal sales.

"We have found that Internet vendors often fail to find out the age of their customers. Consequently young people are using the Internet to take up this deadly habit," says Assistant Attorney General Kathy Kinsman, who worked on the agreement. Numerous studies have shown that the earlier an individual begins to smoke, the more likely it is that the person will become addicted.

Today's agreement is another major development in efforts by state Attorneys General to restrict the payment, shipment and supply operations of illegal Internet cigarette traffickers. In March 2005, the Attorneys General announced that the major credit card companies had all agreed to stop processing credit card payments for the Internet retailers. Later in the year, both DHL and UPS agreed to stop shipping packages for vendors engaged in illegal sales.

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