Monthly Archives: June 2011

From: CRE Brazil

The illegal cigarette trade was responsible for reducing the share that Souza Cruz had – a Brazilian subsidiary of British Tobacco – in the domestic market. Last year, the company held 62.3% of the sales volume. In the first quarter of this year, it fell to 61%. According to the Director of Strategic Planning for the company, Paulo Ayres, the illegal products are occupying more and more space in retail.

To prove this fact, he cites a survey showing that contraband cigarettes being negotiated in 45% of the points of sale regulated in Brazil. In 2008, this percentage was 38%.

From: CRE Brazil

The Federal Highway Police seized a load of approximately ten tons of tobacco as well as material for packaging in the state of Rio de Janeiro at dawn last Saturday, the 28th. The merchandise was hidden inside a truck that had come from Paraguay and was heading to an illegal factory in the northeast of the country.

It was an unusual seizure because illegal cigarettes generally come into Brazil already packaged. In addition to several boxes of nearly 100 kilos of tobacco each, the truck was carrying stamps, silk, a machine for packing cigarettes and packages marked Paraguay US.

From: Daily Press

By Austin Bogues

ATF: Counterfeit cigarettes on the rise

The average consumer won’t recognize a pack of counterfeit cigarettes, but they might recognize the taste is different.

The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) has been seeing an increase in counterfeit cigarettes, which mimic brand-name products, according to Teresa Merhige, resident agent in charge of the ATF’s Norfolk office. Raids this week targeted those cigarettes or other tobacco-related offenses.

Federal authorities announced Thursday they had made arrests in Hampton Roads involving people charged with counterfeit and untaxed cigarettes. Local law enforcement also raided stores on Wednesday that were believed to be selling untaxed cigarettes after being tipped off by federal authorities.

 The proponents of a menthol ban continue to deluge the American public with studies and press statements supporting their position.

In the past several days consider:

FDA Must Ban Menthol Smokes, Louis Sullivan, Atlanta Constitution

 Tobacco Giants Engage in ‘Predatory Marketing’, Stanford School of Medicine

 Preceding the aforementioned actions, the American Public Health Association released a number of studies supporting a ban.

 Much in the same way that water will always flow downhill, the public can expect to continue to be inundated by studies proposing a ban sponsored by organizations whose alleged mission is to protect the public health.

From: ECR Newswatch (South Africa)

Five million counterfeit cigarettes have gone up in flames at Briardene, north of Durban.

The consignment, which was confiscated at the Durban harbour in 2008, was destroyed today jointly by the Tobacco Institute of SA and SARS.

While their origin is still unknown, the 500 cases – which bore the Phillip Morris trademark – were declared as shoes bound for Sudan. 

The Institute’s Francois van der Merwe says counterfeit cigarettes cost the country an estimated R3-billion in unpaid taxes every year.

He says it has taken three years to destroy the contraband as officials had to follow due process.

From: Belfast Telegraph

RICHMOND, Va., Jun 20, 2011 (BUSINESS WIRE) — Philip Morris USA (PM USA) filed a civil lawsuit on Friday against 17 retailers in the Miami area for selling counterfeit Marlboro(R) cigarettes. This lawsuit is part of a multi-faceted campaign by PM USA aimed at combating the sale of counterfeit Marlboro(R) cigarettes in south Florida.

From: Minyanville

By Justin Rohrlich

As tobacco taxes rise across the country — and around the world — two things seem to be happening.

Some people quit. And some people simply quit paying full price.

When there’s a dishonest buck to be made, someone inevitably steps in to make it.

While Indian reservations are what most people immediately think of when discussing untaxed black market cigarettes, counterfeit smokes coming in from China have also overrun the market.

In Spain, according to the FT, “the sale of non-taxed, smuggled or counterfeit cigarettes from China has risen in one year from 0.5 per cent of the total market to 4.6 per cent.”

From: The Telegraph.com.au

SYDNEY is flooded with blackmarket cigarettes selling for as little as half the price of a genuine pack, but peddlers are avoiding punishment because it is tobacco companies who catch them.

The Daily Telegraph was able to purchase Chinese-made counterfeit cigarettes from outlets at Kings Cross and Warwick Farm.

British American Tobacco (BAT) conducts about 1000 undercover purchases each year and has taken legal action against more than 100 retailers in the past three years, effectively suing them for copyright infringements.

From: Financial Times

Cigarette sales get stubbed

The bitter price war being fought in Spain’s uniform brown and yellow tobacconists, or estancos, coincided with a January ban on public smoking, Miles Johnson reports from Madrid. But prohibition does not tell the whole story.