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| SUPREME COURT AIDS CIGAR DELIVERIES |
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Page 1 of 2  Plus: Our Register & Win winner of the week!Los Angeles, February 20 – The state of Maine said it was worried about underage purchases of tobacco products – primarily cigarettes – so it enacted a law five years ago that required delivery firms such as Federal Express and United Parcel Service to only deliver tobacco products shipped by retailers licensed by the state. Moreover, the carrier was allowed to release them only to the addressee and that person had to show identification to prove they were of legal age. For that reason, some mail-order and Internet-based cigar merchants simply stopped shipping to Maine. That all changed on Wednesday. In a rare unanimous decision, the U.S. Supreme Court affirmed a lower court holding that the federal statutes controlling interstate commerce nationwide trump Maine’s individual law on the shipment of tobacco products. “To allow Maine to insist that the carriers provide a special checking system would allow other states to do the same," wrote Justice Stephen Breyer. “To interpret the federal law to permit these, and similar, state requirements could easily lead to a patchwork of state service-determining laws, rules, and regulations.” That kind of regulatory nightmare was what Congress sought to avoid in 1994 when it passed laws that, as nicely described in today’s Christian Science Monitor, “bar individual states from interfering in the operations of interstate shipping and transport companies. The federal law is aimed at protecting ground and air shipping companies from onerous state and local regulations that can be substantially different from state to state.” In his decision, Breyer noted that “Despite the importance of the public health objective, we cannot agree with Maine” and pointed out that the federal laws in conflict with Maine’s statutes say “nothing about a public health exemption.” Maine was sued by three New England motor transportation associations over the law, which is now inoperative. The companies were unhappy about having to be concerned about an individual state’s regulations as well as the possible liability burden placed on them by the law. They don’t have to worry about it any more. Swedish Match reports good fourth quarter and annual financials: The world’s no. 2 seller of cigars, Swedish Match AB, reported good results for 2007 that were down slightly, company-wide, from 2006. Cigar sales were flat for the year, a respectable achievement after a rough first quarter of 2007. Swedish Match’s total cigar sales, including both machine-made and premium cigars totaled $539.4 million (converted from Swedish kronor), up just slightly from the $538.8 total in 2006. Sales in the fourth quarter were up in local currencies by 15 percent over 2006, including in the U.S. Interestingly, the financial report included a note that the fourth-quarter gain was “primarily coming from businesses acquired in 2007.” That would be Bogaert Cigars in Europe and retailer Cigars International in the U.S. and the presentation to analysts specifically stated that “U.S. premium sales in Q4 were flat in USD, excluding Cigars International.” The report also noted that sales in the U.S. of its mass-market cigars such as Garcia y Vega and White Owl was down for the year. The presentation to analysts offered this look into the U.S. mass-market business: U.S. Mass-Market Cigar Sales Leaders, by no. of cigars: 1. Swisher International, 34.2% 2. Altadis, U.S.A., 23.4% 3. John Middleton, Inc., 15.4% 4. Swedish Match, 6.8% 5. Lane Limited, 5.8% |
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Did you know?
“Although rarely seen today, coin-operated cigar dispensers have been around since at least 1893.
