English
Italiano 
Español A debut worth $548,900,000.00
Yesmoke is born, a different cigarette.
Philip Morris appeal for damages, for Copyright Infringement and Unfair Competition arrives on the eve of the presentation of Yesmokes new Brand.
There are cigarettes and cigarettes, some people can peacefully make a brand, some others just cannot.
Yesmoke is beginning its production in a big way thanks to a move of Philip Morris that speaks volumes.
The Number One online shop worldwide, with its 6 million shipments a year, allegedly made illicit earnings, from January 2000 up to today, selling Marlboros destined to the European market to customers in the US.
Philip Morris request for compensation, though not yet confirmed by a final ruling, could become a Sword of Damocles for the finances of Yesmoke if it thought about setting foot in the States to manufacture cigarettes and organize logistics. Philip Morris in fact, has already made it known that it will do all it can to make a clean sweep of the whole business.
But is it Mohamed going to the mountain, or the mountain going to Mohamed? Is Philip Morris missing the bus of progress? With the prospects of an online market that will allow consumers to buy directly from the manufacturer, with international regulations that will bring order to duty tax payments, without any penalization for online sales, Yesmoke is preparing to offer a cigarette direct from the maker to the consumer. The pack will show the production date: Yesmoke cartons, in fact, as soon as they leave the production line, will already be on their way to their destinations.
But today, in Yesmoke's case, if it dared put a foot on US soil to start up a plant and organize logistics, it would have hanging over its head an expenditure of 540,062,325.00. dollars. And that's not all, if the sentence is confirmed, the American colossus will be able to demand the application of the sentence in any country of the world where Yesmoke might have a plant or might be thinking about opening a plant. Unless Yesmoke pays the “fine” of $ 540,062,325.00.
A great game, a stately strategy, but, as usual, there is an aspect that makes the whole situation grotesque: the most important figure involved in the issue is missing: the Customer, the supreme judge in a free market!
Big Tobacco, at the dawning of Internet, is showing the far-sightedness of those authorities years ago, who declared that television would be transitory phenomenon, and that aviation was totally useless for purposes of war.
“50 kilos of paperwork”
The letter of the Arnold & Porter Office of New York, the attorneys assisting Philip Morris in its not very gallant controversy with Yesmoke, has been added to the over 50 kilos of “paperwork” (the number of thousands of pages is uncountable), whose sender is the colossus of tobacco. Imagine how much all this collection cost! Philip Morris spends billions of dollars each year in legal suits mostly to attack competitors, much to the joy of its lawyers. It attacks everyone, headfirst and, we can add, without thinking.
The method works because the “top class” legal expenses required to oppose a colossus of this size can reach astronomical levels. And there are many, many companies, which, different from Yesmoke, have renounced selling in the United States to avoid getting caught up in endless legal expenses. The giant, basically would always win, because it is a giant.
While a smoker in any European country can find at his corner shop at least 50 brands, including national and foreign cigarettes, each offered in all the variants regular, lights, menthol, etc. and in every style and length, paradoxically in the States, the country that symbolizes the free market, the smoker who goes to his local store to buy cigarettes will find on average about 10 different packs, counting regular, lights, menthol, soft box, etc. which, in that meager display are supposed to represent the “winning” brands.
After 40 years of top-secret research, shaving off with determination and ingenuity, one cent at a time, the costs of cigarette production, Big Tobacco has succeeded in putting on the market a Premium Brand at the cost of an cheap one. …Not very far-sighted!
If we penalize online commerce instead of providing it on a regular basis, as the free market is demanding in a loud voice, anyone who wants to enter with the production of a better product will find himself excluded by an expensive distribution system, consolidated in decades of silence and compromises. It enables the colossi of tobacco to impose all sorts of vetoes and conditions, conforming to a view of the market that up to today has been accepted passively.
But the sale by postal services, exalted and internationalized by the arrival of electronic commerce, thanks to the direct contact between the manufacturer and the customer, is the starting point for the offer of a better product at a fair price. Big Tobacco has shown, as usual, that it has not yet learned an elementary law of commerce: “An innkeeper must never do his accounting without his guests”.
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