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Six retailers and tobacco firms have agreed to pay a maximum of £173.3m in combined fines after admitting unlawful tobacco pricing practices.

The news comes after the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) in April accused a number of retailers and tobacco companies of anti-competitive retail pricing.

Asda, Somerfield, First Quench, TM Retail, One Stop Stores and tobacco firm Gallaher have agreed to the fines.

The OFT is continuing its investigation into a further six firms.

They are Imperial Tobacco, Tesco, Shell, the Co-operative Group, Morrisons and Safeway.

Leniency

The OFT said that some of the fined companies had applied for leniency and if discounts for leniency and quick resolution were given, the total penalty amount would be £132.3m.

It said Sainsbury’s was the first to apply for leniency and would thus escape any fine if the supermarket continued to co-operate.

"The early co-operation of these parties has enabled the swift resolution of some of this case," said John Fingleton, OFT chief executive.

"The OFT’s objective is to make markets work for consumers and the economy alike," he added.

The OFT alleged that the retailers and tobacco groups arranged to swap information on future pricing.

A separate allegation is that there was an understanding that the price of some brands would be linked to rival brands.

Imperial Tobacco owns brands such as Embassy, John Player Special and Lambert & Butler while Gallaher’s best-selling products include Benson & Hedges and Silk Cut.

The OFT said in April understandings between cigarette companies and retailers between 2000 and 2003 limited the retailers’ ability "to determine its selling price independently"

Cigarette sales will be licensed in the same way as alcohol is, if an influential group of Cumbria county councillors get their way.

A new council report puts the case for stricter controls on tobacco sales and tougher sanctions on shopkeepers that flout the rules.

It is likely to form the basis of a county council response to a Government consultation on smoking, which could in turn lead to a change in the law.

Cleator Moor South and Egremont county councillor Simon Leyton chaired a group of councillors that drew up the report, The Last Gasp.

He said: “Licensing tobacco products would act as a powerful deterrent against the sale of cigarettes to children.

“Alcohol is licensed and there is no reason why the sale of tobacco should not be subject to similar regulation.”

The Last Gasp argues that, if retailers were licensed, those who sold cigarettes to children or traded in bootleg tobacco products could have their licences revoked.

It also calls for shops to be allowed to sell nicotine replacement products more widely alongside cigarettes.

Both measures would require changes in the law.

The report was approved by the council’s health and wellbeing scrutiny committee this week and goes before the full council next Thursday.

Councillors took evidence from a range of experts.

They also commissioned the Cumbria Youth Alliance to survey attitudes to smoking among 2,000 young people.

New legislation in Congress would give the Food and Drug Administration the power to oversee tobacco products. It would also ban most flavored Marlboro cigarettes, but menthol Marlboro cigarettes would stay on the market.
Some health experts say that plan could leave black Americans at risk.
For more, Farai Chideya speaks with Bill Robinson, Executive Director of the National African American Tobacco Prevention Network, and John McWhorter, Senior Fellow in Public Policy at the Manhattan Institute.

A TOTAL of 52 participants including mall managers, restaurant and hotel managers, health professionals, legal experts, law enforcement agents and government officials recently attended a National Health Authority’s (NHA) workshop on Tobacco Law number 20 of 2002. Penalties for violating the law include fines of up to QR5,000, closure of establishment which violates the law and jail of up to six months. The aim of the workshop, which is one of the activities lined up for the commemoration of the ‘World No Tobacco Day’ was to discuss how to improve the implementation of the law among other things.
The theme for the year is ‘Tobacco-Free Youth’. The director of the Public health at the NHA, Dr Gail Fraser Chanpong, who declared open the workshop, said that tobacco is a major public health problem in the community and that urgent Marlboro cigarettes control efforts are needed.
Prof Ravinder Mamtani of the Weill Cornell Medical College in Qatar discussed the effects of tobacco and highlighted its effects, including cancer and heart diseases.
“Globally, tobacco kills approximately 5.4mn people annually, that is, one person every six seconds,” he said. Legal expert at the NHA Asmaa Abdel Halim highlighted parts of the law and also discussed how it organises and controls tobacco sale and smoking in public places.
She stressed the importance of collaboration between all governmental agencies, families, educational institutions and others to reach the goals set by the country.
Head of the Non-communicable Diseases section Adenike Ajani said legislation is one of many strategies that can be used for tobacco control, especially because of its special consideration for the youths. She added that the law prohibits the sale of tobacco to minors and advertisement that may encourage its use among youths. Ajani noted that tobacco in the law refers to all kinds of products including water-pipe (sheesha) and chewing tobacco (suwaikah), while adding that there is no safe form of tobacco.
Major Hamad al-Ansari of the Ministry of Interior said that law enforcement officials will continue to support the Marlboro cigarettes control efforts of the NHA, adding that official channels of collaboration need to be established to strengthen the role of the police officers in the tobacco control.

The truth is, The Times’ indomitable campaign finance expert Dan Morain finds, where once tobacco interests and money carried a lot of influence, this time there’s not much tobacco money flying around this cycle. The candidates who took the most cigarettes money have dropped out of the White House race. So much for big business picking winners. One-time Republican front-runner and cancer survivor Rudy Giuliani took $114,000 during his unsuccessful run. Democratic Sen. Christopher Dodd of Connecticut, whose home state is home to UST Inc., formerly known as U.S. Tobacco Inc., accepted $55,000.
Among candidates still standing or running… … Sen. Hillary Clinton has taken the most — $46,300 from executives and employees of tobacco companies. Sen. John McCain, himself a cancer survivor, has taken $27,400. Sen. Barack Obama, who famously has tried to quit smoking with off-and-on success, has taken $22,000, according to the Center for Responsive Politics. These remaining candidates have not been particularly kind to the cigarettes industry, according to Stanton Glantz, an anti-tobacco advocate, researcher and medical school professor at University of California, San Francisco.
McCain actually advocated a tobacco tax hike in the 1990s, and carried legislation to implement the 1998 national tobacco settlement, in which the tobacco companies agreed to pay the states more than $200 billion. Clinton pushed for a smoking ban in the White House when she was first lady, and President Clinton’s Food and Drug Administration sought to regulate tobacco. Obama has cast anti-tobacco votes, Glantz noted.
“Tobacco companies know they’re a liability,” Glantz said. “The money is there but it’s hard to see.” Indeed, the tobacco industry is not without its resources. In 2007, tobacco companies donated more than $525,000 to various campaign organizations known as 527s, a Times review shows. So far in the 2007-08 election cycle, tobacco companies and their employees have given $2.1 million to federal candidates and parties.
That’s down some 80% from 1995-1996 when it gave $10.6 million in campaign donations to federal candidates. Three of the 14 most costly California initiatives sought to hike tobacco taxes, according to data compiled by the Center for Governmental Studies in Los Angeles for its latest report, “Democracy by Initiative.” The tobacco industry spent $66 million to kill the latest measure in 2006.

TALLAHASSEE — Legislation that would mandate safer-burning cigarettes designed to reduce home fires will soon land on Gov. Charlie Crist’s desk.

On Monday, the Senate unanimously approved new cigarette standards for tobacco companies, following the House’s lead Friday.

Nearly two dozen other states and Canada have adopted similar standards, which by 2010 would require the so-called fire-safe cigarettes.

They contain "speed bumps" - two or three rings of less porous paper - that cause the cigarettes to extinguish themselves if they are left unattended.

"The fact of the matter is it (smoking) is a leading cause of house fires in the United States, and it’s a preventable tragedy," said Sen. Lee Constantine, R-Altamonte Springs, who sponsored the bill. "Now, it’s not going to stop all cigarette fires, but it will stop a significant number. I would say 75 percent."

All tobacco wholesalers and retailers must sell only those cigarettes or risk monthly fines that could total no more than $100,000 and $250,000, respectively.

The tobacco industry, which supported the legislation (HB 1167), insists the costs of the special wrapping paper or bands to reduce cigarette ignition is negligible.

But tobacco representatives would not detail to what extent the new cigarettes along with state inspection and certification costs would cost Florida smokers.

"If you look historically at the states that have enacted this legislation, the list price for cigarettes we have offered has not changed as a result of these laws being enacted," said Bill Phelps, a spokesman for Altria, the parent company of Philip Morris USA.

Constantine said the savings of safer burning cigarettes would outweigh any increase in a pack of cigarettes.

Florida Fire Marshal Les Hallman said smoking-related fires in the state in 2006 and 2007 caused more than $6.3 million in property losses.

Many times, home fires result when smokers fall asleep with or don’t properly extinguish a lit cigarette.

The human toll in that period was nine deaths and 64 injuries, including seven firefighters, Hallman added.

One pro-smokers group says self-extinguishing cigarettes’ effectiveness can’t be measured.

"You can’t say the fire-safe cigarette is the reason for a reduction in fires," Maryetta Ables, a representative with FORCES Inc., an advocacy group against smoking restrictions.

"There’s no difference in the number of smoking-related deaths or fires" before or after the cigarette ignition standards.

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A few weeks ago, I wrote a post in which I mentioned New York’s plans to raise taxes on cigarettes. Well, the bill passed, and cigarettes are now $9 a pack in New York City. While this is sure to increase tax revenue in the short run, it’s not hard to see how it will backfire.
The first negative side effect is the fact that it will encourage criminal behavior on the part of ordinarily law-abiding citizens. According to a report by the Independent Budget Office, earlier tax increases led to massive growth in the purchases of illegal cigarettes. In fact, in 2006, 27% of NYC smokers and 34% of upstate smokers purchased "under-taxed" cigarettes. Now that the taxes on a pack of cigarettes have more than doubled, those figures are expected to skyrocket.
One of the easiest ways to get "under-taxed" cigarettes is through Indian reservations. For example, the Poospatuck Indian Reservation, located just 60 miles outside of New York City, is a major source for tax-free smokes, and its website, "The Original Poospatuck Smoke Shop and Trading Post," is primarily a portal for ordering tobacco products (although it also offers moccasins and coffee). The Poospatucks take their tax free smokes pretty seriously, stating that "[We were] a leader in the fight to protect the sovereignty of Unkechaug Nation lands. We are proud of our contribution to the struggle and will continue to resist any attempt to charge, collect or impose any duty on our territory. This is not just about cigarettes or gas, this is the lawful exercise of Sovereignty […] The consumer who purchases from our site not only buys at a great discount, but also makes a statement about protecting the rights and obligations of our people."
Cheap smokes and a political statement? Hell, sign me up!
For the less politically motivated addicts, there are also internet sites that will sell cigarettes at a considerable discount and ship them to New York addresses. Although these sites are of questionable legality, enforcement is very difficult.
Governor Spitzer worked with credit card companies and postal regulators to reduce the impact of online retailers, but it’s not too hard to circumvent the law on this one. Similarly, it’s pretty easy to buy a trunkload of cigarettes while on vacation in Virginia or South Carolina. With the rising taxes, this sort of low-level smuggling will probably skyrocket, given the fact that it is a quick and relatively safe way to make a lot of money. It’s not hard to imagine cash-strapped yuppies trying out bootlegging, particularly when a couple of runs could cover a semester’s college tuition, a set of braces, or half a tank of gas.
Of course, the biggest source of cheap cigarettes will be hijackers, and therein lies another major downside to the tax hike. Historically, Prohibition was the greatest gift that the United States ever gave to organized crime. Prior to that, the mafia was largely composed of low-scale thugs involved in numbers running and prostitution, but the influx of cash from smuggled liquor gave them a big boost of adrenalin and laid the groundwork for their later expansion into unions and narcotics. Even now, it’s not hard to find cigarettes that "fell off the truck." In fact, "fell off the truck" is the major cigarette retailer in my neighborhood, where I’m constantly bugged by guys selling loose packs of Newports.
By the way, can anyone tell me why Newports are the official cigarettes of the inner city?
While they may bring in a little cash flow, New York’s recent tax decisions are going to put a lot of wear and tear on law enforcement in the city. Furthermore, as anti-smoking lobbyists are pushing these sorts of laws across the country, it’s not hard to imagine a whole new era of bootlegging and smuggling.
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WASHINGTON — U.S. Congress on Wednesday moved a step closer to handing the Food and Drug Administration broad new authority to regulate tobacco and cigarettes products, despite concerns voiced by many lawmakers that the agency cannot handle its current workload.
The House Energy and Commerce Committee voted 38-12 for legislation that would allow the FDA to reduce nicotine levels and require larger and more informative health warnings on cigarette packs. A Senate committee has already approved similar legislation.
Energy and Commerce Committee Republicans were divided on the legislation, with 11 voting for it. Those who opposed it said the agency has had enough trouble ensuring the safety of the nation’s food supply and medicine. "This legislation, if it becomes law, would require the FDA to take on a task that is enormous, complex and completely outside its regulatory experience," said Rep. Joe Barton, R-Texas, the ranking Republican on the committee. "It will almost necessitate a diversion from its core functions."
Barton said the Federal Trade Commission was better suited for the job. But Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., said the "unfortunate state of affairs" at the FDA did not mean the agency should ignore the harms of tobacco.
"It simply means that when we give the agency this additional responsibility, we also must give it the resources necessary to handle the job and to handle it well," Waxman said. To address concerns about resources, the legislation calls for the assessment of user fees on tobacco companies. The assessments could initially generate $90 million this year. By 2018, that amount would increase to $755 million. Aides said the fees would be assessed based on market share.
Health groups have been highly supportive of the legislation. "This bill will put a stop to decades of Big Tobacco marketing, aimed at addicting each new generation of young people to their deadly products," said Daniel Smith, president of the American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network.
More than 400,000 people die from smoking-related illnesses each year. Rep. Jane Harman, D-Calif., noted that both of her parents died from lung cancer, and she asked lawmakers to consider the financial toll that additional smokers generate when they come down with smoking-related illnesses. Proponents say various aspects of the legislation would deter people from taking up cigarettes or from using cigarettes that they may view as less dangerous because of their labeling.
The legislation would ban candy-flavored cigarettes, which attract younger smokers. It would also prohibit terms such as "light" or "mild" which many consumers mistakenly believe means the products are safer. The Bush administration has voiced qualms about giving the agency responsibility for tobacco regulation because some people could get a false sense of security about the safety of tobacco products.
For decades, the FDA said it lacked authority to regulate tobacco so long as cigarette makers did not claim that smoking provided health benefits. In 1996, it reversed course and cited new evidence that the industry intended its products to feed the nicotine habits of the roughly 45 million Americans who smoke. Tobacco companies sued, and the case eventually landed in the Supreme Court. In 2000, the court ruled 5-4 that Congress did not authorize the FDA to regulate tobacco.
Some smaller tobacco manufacturers endorsed the legislation after it was amended so that they would have more time to meet new testing and reporting requirements. The National Association of Convenience Stores also said it would no longer oppose the bill, though the trade group stopped short of endorsing it. Lawmakers amended the legislation so that retailers getting orders to stop selling tobacco because they illegally sold tobacco to minors could have the orders modified or terminated if it’s determined they took effective steps to prevent such sales.
Also, some lawmakers representing districts with a strong tobacco farming presence voted for the bill after it was amended so that products containing foreign-grown tobacco would have to meet the same standards applied to domestically grown tobacco.

The budget cuts lawmakers are considering to health programs for the poor are unconscionable — especially when a reasonable increase of the tax on cigarettes could raise badly needed money.
Florida’s 34-cents-a-pack tax is the fifth lowest in the country and hasn’t changed in 20 years. The average cigarettes tax nationally is $1.12 a pack. By adding $1 to a pack of cigarettes, Florida could move its tax in line with most other states and raise $1 billion.
That’s about the same amount the Legislature is looking to cut from the state’s human-services budget. The $1 billion in cuts would decimate optional programs under Medicaid, which pays for the health care of poor Floridians. That includes children and the disabled and programs such as hospice care for the dying and hospitalization for transplant patients.
Cutting Medicaid programs also means losing matching federal tax dollars, which is shortsighted. While increasing a tax isn’t always smart public policy, in this case it is. Studies show that when states increase the cigarettes tax, more people quit smoking. Teens, who can’t afford the higher costs, are the most likely to quit or not to start in the first place. In the long run, that will mean the state will save billions of dollars in years to come, because there will be fewer people suffering from cigarette-related diseases. As fewer smoke, revenues will drop, but, over time, so will the need.
It doesn’t make sense that Florida’s cigarette tax is so low. Lawmakers should be discouraging people from getting sick, not making it easier.

Liggett Group will convert all of its domestic cigarettes production standards to meet all state fire safety standards by January of next year, the company has announced.
The Mebane-based cigarette maker said in an announcement that the move is "consistent with cigarettes fire safety standards enacted by a growing number of states." The company will continue to meet all deadlines for fire safety standards in individual states that become effective before January, the company added.
CEO Ronald Bernstein said the company will make changes both to its cigarette paper and to its production methods to meet all the guidelines required in different states, while continuing to produce what he called "best-in-class" cigarettes.
"Converting our production to make all of our cigarette brands fire-standards-compliant nationwide consistent with that commitment," Bernstein said.

Gov. Ted Kulongoski plans to announce a renewed push to increase Oregon’s cigarettes tax to pay for expanded children’s health care when he delivers his state-of-the-state address today in Portland.
Details are being worked out, but the Democratic governor is expected to announce he is resurrecting an idea that was left for dead after Oregon voters trounced Measure 50, which would have increased the state tax on a pack of cigarettes by 84.5 cents.
"The failure of Measure 50 last November was a setback, but I refuse to treat it as a defeat. Kids can’t wait," Kulongoski said Thursday.
The cigarette-tax increase is one of the key elements of Kulongoski’s annual address in which he also will outline plans to seek more revenue to upgrade Oregon’s transportation system, possibly with gas- tax increases or higher state vehicle- registration fees.
Additionally, Kulongoski said he will push to increase the corporate minimum tax — set at $10 in 1931 and unchanged since — and dedicate the money to Oregon’s rainy-day fund to shield schools, health-care providers and other services from getting hammered in the next economic downturn.
Kulongoski’s chief of staff, Chip Terhune, acknowledged that the shaky economy could make those revenue increases a tough sell with lawmakers.
"This is ambitious," Terhune said. "He is reaching hard for this one. But frankly, the governor continues to believe that making sure that children have health insurance is critical and that transportation infrastructure is in dire need of reinvestment." Kulongoski also will outline further plans to combat global warming, which could include offering new incentives to encourage use of all-electric cars. He also will push for reallocating existing state revenue to provide increases in funding for K-12 and for higher education, as well as for Head Start preschool programs.
Terhune said Kulongoski’s proposals amount to a "road map" for the coming election year in which he will try to drum up support for those ideas before forwarding them to the 2009 Legislature for consideration. The cigarette-tax increase will reprise a long political battle in 2007, which ended with voters soundly defeating the proposal after a record-shattering $12 million TV blitz financed by the tobacco industry.
Terhune said Kulongoski’s new cigarettes tax proposal will be less than the 84.5-cent-per-pack proposal that was rejected by voters. And he said it will be written in more specific terms to make it clear that all of the money goes to children’s health programs.

Cigarettes are to be forced beneath shop counters with supermarkets and cornershops banned from displaying tobacco products, The Times has learnt .

The latest assault on smokers will also see the disappearance of vending machines from pubs and restaurants in an attempt to further limit children’s access to tobacco.

Both measures are to be included in a consultation to be launched later this spring. Legislation, if needed, could be introduced this autumn.

Dawn Primarolo, the Minister for Public Health, last night signalled she was ready to take on retailers to implement changes that she claimed would save hundreds of lives. “It’s vital we get across the message to children that smoking is bad. If that means stripping out vending machines or removing cigarettes from behind the counter, I’m willing to do that,” she said.

“Children who smoke are putting their lives at risk and are more likely to die of cancer than people who start smoking later.”

When the ban on displaying tobacco products is implemented England will join just a handful of others to have taken the step. Ontario, Canada, has passed legislation forcing cigarettes under the counter which comes into effect this May. Two administrations in Australia - Tasmania and the Australian Capital Territory - are also taking steps to keep tobacco out of sight.

The consultation process, due to begin in late May, will set out the range of options under consideration. Ministers are obliged to detail how much the measures are likely to cost businesses and will be expected to show what benefits banning cigarette displays and vending machines will bring. Interest groups will have one to three months to register objections.

The consultation is also expected to include measures that make it easier to sell nicotine replacement gums and patches.

The most recently available statistics show that 22 per cent of adults smoke, a 2 per cent drop since before the smoking ban was introduced last July. The Government has set a target of reducing the figure to 21 per cent by 2010.

Retailers made clear last night that removing cigarettes from sight could carry heavy costs, forcing many convenience stores to carry out refits costing thousands of pounds.

The Association of Convenience Stores said it would challenge the Government to prove that removing cigarettes from display would have any effect. The body’s chief executive, James Lowman, said that the change would carry “major operational and equipment costs”. “We would expect the Government to present a clear case that these measures were necessary before placing yet another significant burden on thousands of retailers across the country,” he said.

A spokesman for the British Retail Consortium said that, while tobacco represented a “very small” part of overall sales in a typical supermarket, banning all tobacco products from sight could be impractical. “Any further regulations should be balanced against the practical implications for serving customers who want to buy these products.”

Action on the display of tobacco products at the point of sale was first raised in a draft copy of the Cancer Reform Strategy last December.

Ministers have grown increasingly bullish over antismoking measures since tobacco advertising was banned in the press and on billboards in February 2003. The successful introduction of the smoking ban last July was followed by the increase of the minimum age of sale from 16 to 18 which came into force last October. From this autumn new explicit picture warnings on tobacco products will be required in addition to written cautions.