Tobacco Company Files Suit over N.Y. Ban on Direct Sales October 18, 2000
News Summary
The Brown & Williamson Tobacco Corporation has filed a federal lawsuit aimed at overturning New York's law that prohibits the sale of cigarettes by mail order, telephone and the Internet, the Dow Jones News Service reported Oct. 15.The nation's third-largest cigarette maker said the law, the first of its kind in the United States, is "an unconstitutional interference with interstate commerce." The lawsuit seeks to block the state law before it goes into effect next month.
Recently, Brown & Williamson announced that it planned on using catalogs and eventually the Internet to sell some of its less-popular brands.
The law passed by the New York legislature earlier this year stated that online, phone and mail-order cigarette sales posed a "serious threat" to public health and the state economy. Lawmakers also noted that such sales would make it easier for children to obtain cigarettes.
The Brown & Williamson lawsuit claims the law represents "impermissible economic protectionism at its most flagrant" by giving in-state retailers a monopoly over cigarette sales.
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