Business Booming for Online Cigarette Merchants February 28, 2001
News Summary
While other dot-com businesses close up shop, sales are thriving for Web-based cigarette merchants, the E-Commerce Times reported Feb. 22.Although sales are brisk, online tobacco merchants can expect to face numerous legal challenges.
Currently, tobacco sales in the U.S. are being conducted tax-free, violating state and federal laws. In addition, there are minimal safeguards in place to prevent illegal cigarette sales to minors.
According to law-enforcement officials, online cigarette sales to minors are out of control. With most Internet tobacco merchants, teens can buy cigarettes without verifying their age.
"This is an area we continue to look at," said Maryland Assistant Attorney General Jennifer Pressman. "There is not yet any way that we're aware of to ensure that minors can't buy cigarettes online."
Law-enforcement officials in Maryland are working on bringing lawsuits against tobacco e-tailers in an effort to ensure that minors cannot purchase cigarettes online. Other states, including Texas, Maryland, and Michigan, have sued online tobacco merchants for failing to verify the age of their customers.
At the same time, tobacco companies are filing lawsuits contending that they have the right to sell their products online. For instance, Brown & Williamson Tobacco Corporation, the third-largest cigarette manufacturer in the U.S., filed a lawsuit in October in a Manhattan federal court to overturn a New York state law banning the sale of cigarettes on the Internet.
The case has not yet come to trial.
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