EnglishBuy cigarettes online – Why you can
There are two major problems regarding online sales (or international mail order sales) that need to be studied and solved: copyright, and the payment of import customs duties.
1. Copyright
A United States federal law, known as the Imported Cigarette Compliance Act of 2000, prohibits the importation into the United States of cigarettes bearing registered U.S. trademarks without the authorization of the trademark owner.
The copyright problems are the only factor that led to the temporary closure of Yesmoke, as the company was selling Marlboros to American customers without the authorization of Philip Morris.
Following the principles behind Philip Morris's strategies, concurrent with the Imported Cigarette Compliance Act of 2000, any manufacturer could erect barriers that would block the freedom that Internet has always given us.
In 2004 Philip Morris won on all points the lawsuit in the United States against Yesmoke, that was condemned to the payment of 173 million dollars to Philip Morris; Yesmoke ignored the sentence and continued to ship the products of Big Tobacco.
The USPS (United States Postal Service), in fact, didn't seem very much worried about the "Copyright" problems of the tobacco colossus and continued delivering cigarettes all over the United States. They say that receiving cigarettes by mail, both from foreign countries and from an American State, is not illegal: it is a right of American citizens based on by federal laws.
So Big Tobacco and its backers decided to deal with the controversies resorting to strong measures. On November 16th 2004, Yesmoke was blocked in the USA, when, with a blitz of over 200 agents, in a memorable and somewhat grotesque "raid against smuggling", at New York's JFK Airport, an entire airplane was confiscated with 150 thousand cartons of cigarettes.
The position of the Swiss Authorities
When David H. Katz, director of the Philip Morris Brand Integrity Dept. asked Switzerland to interrupt the cigarette shipments from that country to the United States, the Swiss authorities were uncompromising: shipping cigarettes to the USA is legal based on the Universal Postal Convention dated September 15th, 1999.
The provisions of this international law were ratified by the United States and by Switzerland and cigarettes are listed among the permitted products. If Switzerland forbade these shipments, it would be violating the above agreement.
The situation today
Today the Yesmoke Online Store no longer sells Marlboros; it produces and sells its own Yesmoke Tobacco products, obviously, authorized by the company. So the copyright problem no longer exists.
2. The payment of import customs duties
The customs services of many countries do not tax products purchased by international mail order.
Canada is an example of successful customs tax procedures: import duties are specified and collected when the packages of cigarettes are delivered to the buyers, and, pleasant surprise, the cigarettes still cost a bit less than at the local stores.
Those who believed that the world of tobacco and its distribution were in the hands of the five tobacco colossi, who had eliminated all forms of competition, had to change their tune. Canada, for example, had set up a free and successful new sales channel. Good for you, Canada!
On the other hand, the country that gave birth to that instrument of freedom called Internet has not managed to do the same thing. Why?
In the US, in fact, and also in many other countries, in spite of the notifications sent by the Swiss Customs Service, and in spite of the row made by Yesmoke in newspapers and on television, the customs declarations, also called import requests, that have always accompanied all of Yesmoke's shipments, have always been disregarded.
So, up to today in the United States, where the greatest number of online purchases is made, a carton of cigarettes coming from another country is not taxed, much to the joy of customers who can order and receive products in their own homes as if they were at an airport duty-free shop.
Perhaps the explanation lies in the fact that if the goods were taxed, the cigarettes purchased by mail would cost still cost less than at the local store, and this would start up a new and legitimate distribution system, not favorable to Big Tobacco.
