Tobacco company stops Internet sales
July 17 2006
The days of buying cigarettes over the Internet may be numbered. New York and 30 other states have reached an agreement with a U.S. tobacco company to stop the sale of cigarettes online.
Lorillard, the company that makes Newport, Old Gold, and Kent has agreed to stop the illegal sales. Attorney General Eliot Spitzer is spear-heading the effort. His office says it's hopeful that more companies will follow suit.
Lorillard will stop shipping cigarettes to companies the Attorney General has found to sell cigarettes illegally online or by mail; reduce the supply to vendors who illegally resell cigarettes online; and suspend such violators from the company's incentive programs.
"Lorillard always has supported compliance with laws dealing with the illegal sale of our products, and has instituted measures to punish those who are determined to be in violation of the law," Ronald Milstein, senior vice president of Lorillard, said in a prepared statement.
The attorneys general in the 33 states say all
Internet sales of cigarettes are illegal because sellers violate federal and state laws, including the direct shipment of cigarettes, age-verification laws, federal mail and wire fraud, and federal anti-racketeering law.
"Internet and mail-order cigarette sales are a public health threat because they help put a deadly product in our children's hands," Attorney General Bill Lockyer said in a prepared statement.
Tobacco giant company Philip Morris USA reached a similar agreement in January. |
