Tobacco.org

Raid-control expands to protect cigarette gantries 

Raid-control – the national crime prevention initiative - has expanded its robbery deterrent package to include the protection of tobacco products within cigarette gantries in response to a new crime trend that retailers are experiencing.

Criminals are targeting the cigarette gantries within several convenience store chains and demand that the person behind the counter hands over the cigarettes. In some cases the raiders jump the counters and sweep the cigarettes into bin bags before escaping with their haul.

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Statement by Senator Herb Kohl on S. 1147, the Prevent All Cigarette Trafficking (PACT) Act of 2009  

The PACT Act will strengthen our tobacco laws to ensure that law enforcement has the tools they need to investigate and prosecute cigarette traffickers. Each day we delay its passage, terrorists and criminals raise more money, states lose significant amounts of tax revenue, and kids have easy access to tobacco products sold over the internet.

This is not a minor problem. . . .

The common sense approach taken in the PACT Act to combat this problem has brought together a strong coalition of supporters. The legislation has the backing of the law enforcement community, numerous public health advocates, and tobacco companies. I am optimistic that we can work together to pass this bill.

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S. 1147: Text of Legislation, Introduced in Senate 

• This version: Introduced in Senate. This is the original text of the bill as it was written by its sponsor and submitted to the Senate for consideration. This is the latest version of the bill available on this website. . . .

• (a) Short Title- This Act may be cited as the ‘Prevent All Cigarette Trafficking Act of 2009’ or ‘PACT Act’.

• (b) Findings- Congress finds that--

• (1) the sale of illegal cigarettes and smokeless tobacco products significantly reduces Federal, State, and local government revenues, with Internet sales alone accounting for billions of dollars of lost Federal, State, and local tobacco tax revenue each year;

• (2) Hezbollah, Hamas, al Qaeda, and other terrorist organizations have profited from trafficking in illegal cigarettes or counterfeit cigarette tax stamps;

• (3) terrorist involvement in illicit cigarette trafficking will continue to grow because of the large profits such organizations can earn;

• (4) the sale of illegal cigarettes and smokeless tobacco over the Internet, and through mail, fax, or phone orders, makes it cheaper and easier for children to obtain tobacco products;

• (5) the majority of Internet and other remote sales of cigarettes and smokeless tobacco are being made without adequate precautions to protect against sales to children, without the payment of applicable taxes, and without complying with the nominal registration and reporting requirements in existing Federal law;

• (6) unfair competition from illegal sales of cigarettes and smokeless tobacco is taking billions of dollars of sales away from law-abiding retailers throughout the United States;

• (7) with rising State and local tobacco tax rates, the incentives for the illegal sale of cigarettes and smokeless tobacco have increased;

• (8) the number of active tobacco investigations being conducted by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives rose to 452 in 2005;

• (9) the number of Internet vendors in the United States and in foreign countries that sell cigarettes and smokeless tobacco to buyers in the United States increased from only about 40 in 2000 to more than 500 in 2005; and

• (10) the intrastate sale of illegal cigarettes and smokeless tobacco over the Internet has a substantial effect on interstate commerce.

• (c) Purposes- It is the purpose of this Act to--

• (1) require Internet and other remote sellers of cigarettes and smokeless tobacco to comply with the same laws that apply to law-abiding tobacco retailers;

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S. 1147 - Summary: PACT Act 

5/21/2009--Introduced.

Prevent All Cigarette Trafficking Act of 2009 or PACT Act - Amends the Jenkins Act to: (1) include smokeless tobacco as a regulated substance; (2) impose shipping and recordkeeping requirements on delivery sellers (sellers using the telephone, mails, or the Internet) of cigarettes and smokeless tobacco; (3) require common carriers of cigarette products to obtain age and identity verification upon delivery of such products; (4) require the Attorney General to compile and publish a list of delivery sellers of cigarettes or smokeless tobacco who have not complied with the registration or other requirements of such Act; (5) increase criminal penalties and impose new civil penalties for violations of this Act; and (6) grant jurisdiction to U.S. district courts to prevent and restrain violations of this Act and direct the Attorney General to administer and enforce this Act. Amends the federal criminal code to: (1) treat cigarettes and smokeless tobacco as nonmailable and prohibit such items from being deposited in or carried through the U.S. mails (with specified exceptions, including for mailings for consumer testing); and (2) authorize officers of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) to enter the premises of certain cigarette shippers to inspect records and inventories. Prohibits a tobacco product manufacturer or importer from selling or delivering in states cigarettes not in compliance with model or qualifying state statutes. Limits the applicability of this Act with respect to Indian tribes and certain tribal matters. Directs the ATF Director to create regional contraband tobacco trafficking teams and a Tobacco Intelligence Center to monitor and coordinate tobacco diversion investigations. Expresses the sense of Congress with respect to the precedential effect of this Act.

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OFFICIAL BUSINESS MEETING NOTICE & SUMMARY:  

II. Bills . . .

S.1147, Prevent All Cigarette Trafficking Act of 2009 (Kohl, Leahy, Schumer, Specter, Feinstein, Klobuchar)

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S. 1147: PACT Act  

This is a bill in the U.S. Congress originating in the Senate ("S."). A bill must be passed by both the Senate and House and then be signed by the President before it becomes law.

Bill numbers restart from 1 every two years. Each two-year cycle is called a session of Congress. This bill was created in the 111th Congress, in 2009-2010.

The titles of bills are written by the bill's sponsor and are a part of the legislation itself. GovTrack does not editorialize bill summaries. . . .

Sponsor:

Sen. Herbert Kohl [D-WI]show cosponsors (13)

Cosponsors:

Robert Casey [D-PA]

Richard Durbin [D-IL]

Dianne Feinstein [D-CA]

Kirsten Gillibrand [D-NY]

Thomas Harkin [D-IA]

John Kerry [D-MA]

Amy Klobuchar [D-MN]

Patrick Leahy [D-VT]

Mark Pryor [D-AR]

Charles Schumer [D-NY]

Arlen Specter [D-PA]

Mark Warner [D-VA]

Jim Webb [D-VA] . . .

Last Action:

Nov 19, 2009: Committee on the Judiciary. Date of scheduled consideration. SD-226. 10:00 a.m.

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PACT Act Q&A 

As tobacco product excise taxes increase, so do the prices of tobacco products. Criminal organizations exploit these increases by selling contraband or counterfeit tobacco products for their own financial gain and without regard to youth access prevention laws. This illicit activity deprives governments of tax revenue and hurts law-abiding businesses. Law enforcement groups, trade associations, health care advocates and the states have been advocating for the passage of legislation to combat illegal Internet sales of cigarettes and smokeless tobacco a number of years.

The Senate is currently considering S.1147 – the Prevent All Cigarette Trafficking Act (“PACT Act”), which would impose new restrictions on Internet cigarette and smokeless tobacco sales. This legislation will help States recover revenues at a time when they need it most, ensure appropriate age verification, and restore a level competitive environment for the law-abiding wholesalers and retailers throughout the United States who pay their taxes and play by the rules. The PACT Act is an important step in addressing the larger issue of stopping the trade of contraband tobacco.

The PACT Act is strongly supported by a broad array of advocates. Earlier this year, the House passed the PACT Act by an overwhelming bipartisan vote of 397 to 11. Since 2002, both houses have passed the PACT Act on multiple occasions.

Opposition to the PACT Act arises mainly from a few owners and operators of cigarette Internet sites – the sites that engage in the very activity that has robbed states of hundreds of millions of dollars in excise taxes and that has taken enormous business from legitimate retailers and wholesalers. Congress should reject these arguments, and do so based on a clear and accurate understanding of what the PACT Act will do for the states, for retailers and wholesalers, for law enforcement, and for the broad array of other stakeholders who strongly support it. Below are a series of questions and answers intended to clarify why the PACT Act should be enacted. [Top]

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• Internet Cigarette Sales--an Illegal Rip-off of Our Nation / It's Time for the Feds to Act! (PDF) 

• Intent on determining whether progress has been made in curbing the illegal Internet sale of tobacco products, an American Wholesale Marketers Association (AWMA) researcher selected 27 Internet sites at random and purchased 22 cartons of cigarettes using a Visa card and a prepaid Visa card. Of the 27 random sites selected using the Internet search engine Google, 74% allowed the use of a credit card—Visa, Diners Club, MasterCard, and/or American Express.

• None of the cigarettes purchased carried U.S. state tax stamps, and in no case were taxes collected at the time of purchase.

• The American Wholesale Marketers Association will notify proper state authorities of the purchases and pay the appropriate amount of tax to comply with the law.

• Age verification was virtually nonexistent. Most sites simply had a statement on the home page, or hidden in a disclaimer or under Frequently Asked Questions, stating that a purchaser must be a certain age to buy cigarettes. Some asked for a simple check-off that the buyer was over 18.

• This study clearly demonstrates that efforts to restrict illegal cigarette sales via the Internet are ineffective, that billions of dollars in taxes are going uncollected, and that legitimate sellers of tobacco products in the U.S. face unfair competition from unscrupulous online purveyors who are scoffing at U.S. laws and tax requirements.

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• Organizations Call on U.S. Senate to Pass Legislation Preventing Tax‐Evading Online Cigarette Trafficking (PDF) 

Representatives of law enforcement groups, public health organizations and trade associations today gathered on Capitol Hill to urge the Senate to pass S. 1147, the Prevent All Cigarette Trafficking Act of 2009 (PACT Act). This legislation will help combat online cigarette sales that have robbed hundreds of millions of dollars in tax revenues from the states and that undermine state laws that prevent youth access to tobacco products. This bill closes gaps in current federal laws regulating “remote” or “delivery” sales of cigarettes and smokeless tobacco products.

These organizations were joined by Sen. Herb Kohl (D‐WI) and Rep. Anthony Weiner (D‐NY), advocates of combating illegal cigarette sales. Numerous stakeholders have worked with Sen. Kohl through the years to pass the PACT Act, which was passed in the House of Representatives this May.

“The PACT Act will strengthen our tobacco laws to ensure that law enforcement has the tools they need to investigate and prosecute cigarette traffickers, said Sen. Kohl. “Each day we delay its passage, terrorists and criminals raise more money, states lose significant amounts of tax revenue, and kids have easy access to tobacco products sold over the internet.” . . .

Organizations represented at the press conference included the National Association of Convenience Stores, American Wholesale Marketers Association, National Black Police Association and Campaign for Tobacco Free Kids. . . .

The American Wholesale Marketers Association also released its latest findings from a study it conducted examining the prevalence of illegal Internet cigarette sales and the cost to the country. In the study AWMA found the cost to states in illegal cigarette sales could be upwards of $5 billion per year, and that with online sales there is almost no age verification at the time of purchase.

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Members 

State and Local Members

Altria Client Services Inc. on behalf of Philip Morris USA Inc. and U.S.; Smokeless Tobacco Company

Alabama Grocers Association

American Beverage Licensees

Alabama Wholesale Distributors Association

American Homeowners Grassroots Alliance – AHGA . . .

Pennsylvania Distributors Association

School House Strategies

Texas Association of Business

Virginia Chamber of Commerce

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Senate Committee Urged to Pass PACT Act 

The Coalition to Stop Contraband Tobacco -- a group made up of several trade associations, public officials and a unit of a major tobacco company, among others -- gathered on Capitol Hill yesterday to urge the Senate to pass S. 1147, the Prevent All Cigarette Trafficking (PACT) Act of 2009.

If passed, the legislation will help combat online sales of untaxed cigarette and smokeless tobacco products, and help prevent youth access to tobacco. It closes gaps in current federal laws regulating "remote" or "delivery" sales of cigarettes and smokeless tobacco products, according to the organization. The PACT Act was passed in the House in May, and the Senate Judiciary Committee is scheduled to discuss the bill today.

Some trade association members of the Coalition to Stop Contraband Tobacco include NACS, AWMA, FMI, NATO, NATSO, PMAA and SIGMA. Altria Client Services, a division of Altria Group, is also a member of the coalition on behalf of Philip Morris USA and U.S. Smokeless Tobacco Co.

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• Coalition Pressures Senate to Pass Cigarette Anti-trafficking Bill  

The illegal sale of tobacco products through the Internet leads to tax evasion and tobacco use by young people, members of Congress and merchants said Tuesday.

The Coalition to Stop Contraband Tobacco urged the Senate to pass a bill that would address the issue. The bill is scheduled for a vote Thursday by the Senate Judiciary Committee.

"Each day we delay its passage, terrorists and criminals raise more money, states lose significant amounts of tax revenue, and kids have easy access to tobacco products sold over the Internet," said Sen. Herb Kohl, D-Wis., who sponsored the Prevent All Cigarette Trafficking Act.

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Customs seize 12 million cigarettes  

CUSTOMS officers have delivered a double blow to the finances of organised crime gangs shipping large hauls of smuggled cigarettes into the State.

Officers seized almost 12 million cigarettes -- worth nearly €5m -- in two separate consignments after they had been brought into Dublin Port.

Officers said last night that one of the latest hauls had been destined for the black market in the North. The Regal brand cigarettes arrived at the port in a 45-ft container from Barcelona.

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Up to 6m cigarettes seized near border 

A man is being questioned following the seizure of between 5m and 6m cigarettes near Dundalk last night.

The cigarettes were hidden on a container which came from Barcelona to Dublin Port last week.

They were concealed in 25 wrapped pallets along with empty boxes, and according to the documentation the 45 foot cargo was said to contain 'hair extensions'.

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Latest cigarettes seizures worth €4.8m  

THE LATEST seizures by Customs of some 12 million cigarettes in two hauls have a combined retail value of €4.8 million.

The consignments came through Dublin Port in recent days. On Monday, between five million and six million cigarettes were seized by Customs officers near Dundalk, Co Louth.

The Regal brand cigarettes were hidden in a container which arrived into Dublin Port from Barcelona last week. The tobacco was labelled on the manifest as "hair extensions" and was hidden in 25 pallets with empty boxes.

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