Deal Aims To Prevent Web Cigarette Sales

Business Week Online ^ | March 17, 2005 | AP

[cgbg]

Major credit card companies will refuse to participate in Internet sales of cigarettes under a government agreement made Thursday.

[cgbg]

One more of our freedoms died yesterday. The Jenkins Act will be enforced--as many of us gloom and doomers have predicted for a while. This will be an incredible windfall for organized crime. :-(

[Mr. K]

so people just use a different credit card... I guess econimics is not taught to the brilliant jerks running these companies anymore

[Maceman]

Gee, now if only the card issuers could just be persuaded not to process charges for any company who is known to advertise via spam e-mail.

[TomGuy]

That will be ripe for a lawsuit by the sellers against the card companies.

If a person cannot use a credit card to purchase over the Internet, they should not also be able to use a CC to purchase tobacco products at all.

[SittinYonder]

Who the devil are the credit card companies working for? Me or the govmint? Clark Howard recommends putting your credit card in a ziplock baggie filled with water, sealing it and putting it in the freezer. Can you buy internet cigarettes with pay pal?

[tiki]

Enterprising cigarette sales sites will change their charge names, sell a book, or something else innocuous and give the cigarettes for free. There are ways around it.

[TomGuy]

Smokers can still buy cigarettes over the Internet, but they would have to use checks, money orders or some other payment system that would likely delay receipt in the Internet business built on speed. Operators of cigarette Web sites didn't immediately respond to requests for comment.

[andie74]

I wouldn't see any reason why you couldn't buy Internet cigarettes with Paypal, provided that it came straight from your checking account!

Shhh!

[mass55th]

"Who the devil are the credit card companies working for? "

Some card companies charge you a yearly fee. For what? So they can tell you what you can and can't purchase with the card? What's next after cigarettes?

[NaughtiusMaximus]

Free market? What free market? The nannystate will tell you what is proper to buy and how much you should pay for it. (/sarcasm)

[cgbg]

paypal

That may work for a while, but the Jenkins Act prohibits Interstate sales of cigarettes.

It is clear that the states are going after the Post Office and other carriers, credit cards, and the vendors themselves in an all-out effort to close the loopholes.

I fear that Congress will start passing Jenkins Acts on other products since state tax revenues are affected by Internet sales of everything from books to pet toys to plants to skis....

As our government at the state and federal level becomes more socialist there will be higher and higher taxes, more tax avoidance, and more stringent enforcement measures.

If American consumers actually had to pay the full retail price with local taxes on all purchases our economy would grind to a standstill.

Gloom and doomer that I am I think we have passed the point on no return.

I think it is just a matter of time before the "free" economy collapses and what is left of the Constitution collapses with it.

[Raycpa]

This is merely a speed bump. Internet sales will continue via paypal etc. It just means the credit card companies don't want to deal with subpoenas.

Smokers can still buy cigarettes over the Internet, but they would have to use checks, money orders or some other payment system that would likely delay receipt in the Internet business built on speed. Operators of cigarette Web sites didn't immediately respond to requests for comment.

[daybreakcoming]

I don't buy cigarettes over the internet but what concerns me is you can use credit cards to buy porn, etc. over the internet which is detrimental to your mental health (IMO) but not cigarettes which is a legal product?

[Raycpa]

Both are legal but one sale is designed for tax cheats.

[SheLion]

[AmericanChef]

OK. Supposedly everyone wants us to quit smoking cigarettes. Great. Let's say we all DO quit. How, then, will states make up the lost money? Will they sue the tobacco companies again for going out of business! Ha!

Fact is, gubmint doesn't want smokers to quit.

[SheLion]

I wouldn't see any reason why you couldn't buy Internet cigarettes with Paypal, provided that it came straight from your checking account!

I use my Debit Card. Comes right out of my checking account.

Although I don't order cigarettes, I order filtered tubes and loose tobacco.

[Raycpa]

[TexasCowboy]

Thanks for the ping, SheLion.

As we have said many times, this is not about health; it's about control.
The socialistic movement in our local, state and federal governments is growing by leaps and bounds.

More each day, I fear your tag line is dead on.

[ExtremeUnction]

so people just use a different credit card... I guess economics is not taught to the brilliant jerks running these companies anymore.

Give me 10 minutes and I'll find ten ways to get around this silly law.