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Italiano The AAMS vs. Yesmoke: the final debagging?
Leave the “intruder” alone, accept the disarray of the market that will follow, or try everything even what is unacceptable to get rid of Yesmoke and safeguard the interests of Big Tobacco?
So, the AAMS (Azienda Autonoma Monopoli di Stato – Autonomous State Monopolies Agency) got the Guardia di Finanza, the Italian Finance Police, to close and seal up Yesmoke’s factory; the documents required to renew the authorization to manage a warehouse for cigarette production allegedly were not valid.
Although there were orders to fill for foreign customers and new workers were being hired, the machines had to be shut down and the workers had to be laid off to live on redundancy pay - “cassa integrazione”.
Yesmoke: Victory in its pocket
Yesmoke, though still a little company, already seems to be a big problem for the Tobacco Giants.
Yesmoke’s victory in Italy, that is, the effective application of the European Court’s sentence against the minimum price of cigarettes, and the consequent compensation, worth millions, for damages suffered, is only a question of time for the company. Foreign sales are growing and important contracts have been signed, which, without the continuous obstructions raised by the AAMS, would create new employment.
If Yesmoke were not in the way, the European sentence that imposes the abolition of Italy’s “minimum price” and its “minimum tax”, along with the liberalization of the market, would no longer be a problem, because a devious agreement could be made to get around the decision and leave everything as it was before - and no one would even notice..
The TAR decrees, but the AAMS does not give in
According to Yesmoke the documentation is correct. On the 24th of December the TAR (Tribunale Amministrativo Regionale – Regional Administrative Court) decreed in a precautionary decision to remove the seals and immediately reopen the factory, and it fixed January 19th as the date of the hearing to deal with the case. The employees returned to work from their redundancy period and the machines started up again.
In spite of the Judge’s decision, the AAMS did not give in, and on December 28th it presented an appeal against the decree that removed the seals. At 1.00 p.m. the agency registered it and at 3.00 p.m. it obtained a sentence that overturned the decree of December 24th; the judge did not even give Yesmoke’s lawyers the chance to defend their position.
So, Yesmoke’s production machinery has shut down again and the workers have again fallen back on their redundancy pay. Yesmoke risks not being able to fulfill its contracts with foreign customers, and the successes achieved up to now by the company are in danger.
The AAMS hits the bottom
L'AAMS, instead of encouraging a company of its sector that is creating new jobs and is exporting its products, comes out onto the field against the “intruder” who systematically denounces the irregularities of its operation and the incompetence of its managers, with the intention of making it lose its contracts and of damaging it financially.
The AAMS is doing all this openly, in broad daylight. It is preventing an Italian company from working, and it is protecting the interests of foreign industries; this seems to be part of its institutional duties.
But the futile”disintegration” of the lobbyists shows clearly that Yesmoke cannot go on in this way. The time has come for politics to put things in order.
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