Online discount cigarettes
Mueksch, 83, is still smoking all these years later,
but has cut back from a pack to half a pack a day, complaining that
U.S. taxes have doubled prices in the last five years. "It's no
use; you can't fight City Hall," the California woman said. "I
am a second-class citizen." But many discount cigarettes online
other smokers are fighting back by going online to find bargain prices
for cigarettes, a practice that is angering U.S. states, health discount
cigarettes online campaigners, traditional retailers and the
big tobacco companies themselves.
"Cigarettes are an ideal product for distribution
through the Internet," said Ali Davoudi, founder of esmokes.com
and president of the Online Tobacco Retailers Association. "The
average person out there shopping for cigarettes online is your average,
hard-working blue-collar American, looking to save money on a product
that, for whatever reason, no matter what you say, is an addictive product.
They're addicted." The savings available via the Internet may also
prove to be addictive. A carton of discount cigarettes online Marlboros
from CigOutLet.net in Switzerland costs only $15, postage included,
whereas the average cost of a 10-pack carton in the United States is
$37. The tab is even higher in New York City, where discount cigarettes
online smokers pay more than $3.50 a pack just in taxes, which can mean
a full-retail price tag of $75 a carton. U.S. smokers are catching on
to the savings. Forrester Research estimates Internet cigarettes sales
will be $5 billion in 2005, more than double what is expected this year.
That means states could lose $1.4 billion in tax revenue, the study
found. Big tobacco companies, state and federal governments and health
advocates are up in arms about this flourishing corner of the Internet
and are launching an ever-growing legal assault.
California, the latest to enter the fray, this month sued five online
and out-of-state cigarette vendors, accusing discount cigarettes online
them of costing the state $54 million in lost tax revenue and of selling
to minors.
"It is substantial and growing," state Attorney General Bill
Lockyer said in an interview. "In California we discount cigarettes
online do surveys of kids to find out where they are getting
cigarettes, and the number of illegal purchases is growing." "We
estimate that about 20 percent of minors are purchasing illegally, and
the revenue lost to state and local government is fairly substantial
... there is no effort, on delivery, to check identification or age,
or getting someone to sign for the delivery."
Current rules leave it up to the buyer, not the retailer, to pay state
sales tax on online cigarettes. Few do. "The Internet is a boon
to us all," said Ray Domkus, 58, a semi-retired auto worker in
Burbank, California, who has smoked for 40 years. "We don't want
to pay discount cigarettes online the high taxes that the states want
us to pay."
"Many of us are on fixed incomes and I would say a good half of
us are buying from out of state," said Domkus, who is also head
of a California smokers rights group. States are fighting back, and
courts are seeing many cases like the one filed by California against
online tobacco.
In January, New York City sued several Web sites for
evading the city's steep taxes, and a number of states have also taken
legal action. As of March, Philip Morris had filed 18 lawsuits against
Internet retailers, and it has sent warning letters to 80 others. Philip
Morris says it has surveyed 500 sites selling online cigarettes to American
customers and found that not a single one complies with basic standards
(news - web sites) of tax discount cigarettes online reporting or safeguards
against sales to minors. "Overall, the number of people purchasing
(Internet) cigarettes is still relatively small, but growing discount
cigarettes online at a rather alarming rate," said Tom Ryan, a
Philip Morris USA spokesman. "Alarming, I discount cigarettes
online say, because much of that growth is based on illegal
sales." "The long-term effect is decidedly negative on our
business," said Ryan, whose company controls 62 percent of the
name-brand U.S. cigarette market. "We have invested enormous resources
of our own into the legitimate distribution of our products." The
Online Tobacco Retailers Association said such complaints are based
on fears of shrinking market share. Online sales are one factor helping
little-known discount brands get to market, much to the annoyance of
big tobacco, Davoudi said. "We are not out there selling a product
that is illegal," he said. "It's a product that for whatever
reason, yes, is damaging, but it is a legal product."
Philip Morris says discount brands now have a market share of 10 percent,
up from only 3 percent in 1997.
Davoudi also said his group's members refuse to sell
to anyone younger than age 21. "We have a much better, discount
cigarettes online much more reliable way of making sure that cigarettes
get into the hands of adults," he said.
"There is nothing you can discount cigarettes online do to prevent
a kid from walking up to somebody standing outside a store and saying
'Here's 10 bucks, buy me a pack of cigarettes and you keep the change."'