EnglishThe Jenkins Act
The Jenkins Act specifically regards intra-state sales on the US territory, it does not apply to international shipments; in these cases the package is accompanied by a customs declaration, which is an import request not covered by the Jenkins Act.
All personal information in the yesmoke.eu web site will be treated according to Italian Law - December 31, 1996, Article n. 675, paragraph 1, of the Italian Data Protection Act.
The data cannot be disclosed even upon an official request submitted by foreign country authorities.
A “modern” law!
Imagine that the U.S. Postal Service is not a Federal service, but State run, and that each of the 50 States has its own stamps and rates; so a person mailing a letter from Pennsylvania to New York would buy a stamp that only covered the travel to the Pennsylvania border.
Imagine then, that for the part owed to New York State, the sender has to “file with the tax administrator of the State into which such shipment is made, no later than the 10th day of each calendar month”. The bill will arrive at home. …Modern!
This practice dates back to the Jenkins Act, a federal law passed in 1949 that requires anyone who sells cigarettes across a State line to report the transaction to the States' tobacco tax administrators.
The Jenkins Act is a measure without proof: regular, unregistered mail does not have documentation of the shipment. Who can be sure the goods were delivered successfully? And if “Lost or Stolen”, what would have been the country where this fact happened, the country of departure or the country of destination?
The Jenkins Act appears to be a very ambiguous and even risky law. An online cigarette seller could present false data on a customer with whom he is in conflict, or worse still, on a person who has never even been a customer, but whom he does not like.
In fact the application and the operation of the law would be based, without any possibility of verification, only on his declaration.
All the seller has to do is include this person's name in the list, saddle him with a few hundred cartons ordered in the past years, and his unfortunate enemy will receive a bill for some thousands of dollars to be paid without any chance of appeal.
