![]() |
![]() |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Remember to RSVP for the NATO Annual Awards Dinner
In mid-January, NATO members were mailed their
formal invitation to attend the 2010 NATO Annual Awards Dinner on the
evening of Tuesday, March 2nd at
NATO
To Urge New York and Utah Lawmakers
|
| State | Current Cigarette Rate | Proposed Cigarette Increase |
Current OTP Rate |
Proposed OTP Change |
| Alabama | 42.5/Pack | 32.5/Pack | ||
| Kentucky | 15% | 2.9% Decrease | ||
| Maryland | $2.00/Pack | .32/Pack | ||
| Mississippi | .68/Pack | .68/Pack | 15% | 7.5% Increas |
| New Mexico | .91/Pack | $1.00/Pack | 25% | 15% Increase |
| Utah | 69.5/Pack | $1.305/Pack | 35% | 28% Increase |
| Washington | $2.025/Pack | .40/Pack | 75% | 20% Increase |
| West Virginia | .55/Pack | .80/Pack | 7% | 7% Increase |
Jan. 22, 2010
Within the past week, a bill was introduced in Congress that would increase the federal pipe tobacco tax from $2.8311 per pound to $24.78 per pound. Last year, when Congress expanded the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (known as SCHIP), the federal excise tax on pipe tobacco was increased from $1.0969 per pound to the current $2.8311 per pound. At the same time, the federal tax on roll-your-own tobacco was raised from $1.0969 per pound to the current $24.78 per pound.
This week, NATO has issued a commentary letter to the
editor urging the U.S. Senate to take a final vote on passage of the Prevent
All Cigarette Trafficking Act. The
letter is being sent to major
At the upcoming 2010 CSP Convenience Retailing University to be held in early February, NATO Executive Director Tom Briant will be moderating a panel discussion on changes in the tobacco industry. The panelists include NATO members Jim Colucci of Altadis, USA, Doug Hynek of American Snuff Company (formerly known as Conwood Sales Company), Bill Greiwe of Cheyenne International, and John Mayer of McLane Company.
Guide issued by CSP Group regarding this tobacco panel
discussion.
The
2010
Tobacco Plus Expo will be held
in
A major benefit for NATO members who attend the trade show will be free admission to the retail seminars for two people from each retail member. There are three educational sessions on Wednesday, March 3rd, including a choice between: “Driving Sales and Growing Profitability through Store Design and Visual Merchandising” or “El Elefante in Your Aisles: What you Need to Understand About America’s Largest Minority”, followed by the keynote session titled “Skeptics Guide to Positive Thinking in Business”. Then, on Thursday, March 4th, retailers can choose between sessions titled “Strategy Gaming and Competitive Intelligence 101” or “Conducting Background Checks” followed by the keynote session “Tobacco Regulation: A Brave New World”.
The Tobacco Plus Expo offers retailers and distributors the opportunity to see the latest tobacco products and accessories available in the marketplace all under one roof. Smoking is allowed on the exhibit floor and many of the exhibitors offer show only special pricing on tobacco products and accessories.
To
register online, visit www.tobaccoplusexpo.com
and click on the red “Register
Now Click Here” seal. Registering
only takes a few minutes. You
can also register by calling the Expo Trade Show Office at 1-888-737-3976.
Making hotel reservations is also
easy and only takes one toll-free phone call to VIP Meetings at
800-926-3976. Several hotels are
offering special discounts during the Tobacco Plus Expo including the Las
Vegas Hilton Hotel (the hotel where the 2010 NATO Annual Dinner will be
held) and the Encore at
On
The opinion by Judge McKinley (link to copy of ruling) included rulings on a number of additional issues in the lawsuit including the following decisions:
Ø Struck down a provision that would prevent cigarette and smokeless tobacco manufacturers from making statements that their tobacco products are safe or less harmful by virtue of the FDA regulations or by the product complying with requirements set by the FDA.
Ø
Agreed with the plaintiffs that the FDA regulation banning
tobacco advertisements within 1,000 feet of a school or playground is
unconstitutional, but declined to make a final ruling on this issue because
the FDA must issue a final regulation on the outdoor advertising ban by
Ø Upheld the regulation that requires the top 50% of the front and rear panels of a cigarette package and 30% of the two display panels of a smokeless tobacco product to include updated warnings and color graphics depicting the health consequences of smoking and tobacco use.
Ø Upheld the regulations that prohibit cigarette and smokeless tobacco manufacturers from including a brand name or brand logo on merchandise or sponsoring an athletic, social or cultural event in the brand name of a tobacco product.
The
2010 NATO Annual Awards Dinner will be held on the evening of Tuesday, March
2nd at
| Platinum Sponsors | Gold Sponsors |
|
|
|
| Silver Sponsors | Bronze Sponsors |
|
|
|
| Pewter Sponsors | Patron Sponsors |
|
|
|
January 4, 2010
A major benefit for NATO members who attend the 2010 Tobacco Plus Expo trade show will be free admission to the retail seminars for two people from each retail member. Since NATO pays a seminar fee to the Tobacco Plus Expo for each retail member that attends the educational sessions, the Tobacco Plus Expo staff has requested that NATO advise its members to register for the seminars only if they will actually attend the sessions. That is, those NATO members who are either unsure if they will attend the sessions or do not plan to attend the seminars should not register for the seminars. NATO members can register to attend the Tobacco Plus Expo at www.tobaccoplusexpo.com.
In the November/December, 2009 issue of CSP Magazine, an “Industry View” article by NATO Executive Director Thomas Briant was published which discusses the concerns of retailers regarding the new FDA tobacco regulations, the confusion caused by the FDA in implementing certain regulations, and the industry’s need to sue the FDA in an attempt to prevent certain tobacco regulations from going into effect. A copy of the two page article accompanies this E-news bulletin.
The FDA has issued a request for comments to obtain information on suggested elements for approved tobacco retailer training programs. The tobacco regulatory bill signed into law this summer includes civil fines against retailers for violating the restrictions on promoting, advertising and selling tobacco products. However, the fines are less if a retailer has an “approved training program” in place for store clerks. The new law requires that the FDA develop standards for retail training programs.
Nov. 20, 2009
The 2010
Tobacco Plus Expo will be held
in
Free
Retail Seminars for NATO Retail Members
A major benefit for NATO members who attend the trade show will be free admission to the retail seminars for two people from each retail member. There are six educational sessions plus a cigar blending demonstration each afternoon of the show by Jose Blanco of La Aurora. The three sessions on Wednesday, March 3rd, include a choice between: “Driving Sales and Growing Profitability through Store Design and Visual Merchandising” or “El Elefante in Your Aisles: What you Need to Understand About America’s Largest Minority”, followed by the keynote session titled “Skeptics Guide to Positive Thinking in Business”. Then, on Thursday, March 4th, retailers can choose between sessions titled “Strategy Gaming and Competitive Intelligence 101” or “Conducting Background Checks” followed by the keynote session “Tobacco Regulation: A Brave New World”.
See
the Latest Products and Take Advantage
of Show Deals (Please, Smoke!)
With tobacco
products an important source of sales and profits for many kinds of
retailers and wholesalers, the Tobacco Plus Expo offers retailers and
distributors the opportunity to see the latest tobacco products and
accessories available in the marketplace all under one roof.
Smoking
is allowed on the exhibit floor. Another
important reason to attend the trade show is to place orders from many of
the exhibitors that offer show only special pricing.
Register
Now!
To register
online, visit www.tobaccoplusexpo.com
and click on the red “Register
Now Click Here” seal. Registering
only takes a few minutes. You
can also register by calling the Expo Trade Show Office at 1-888-737-3976.
Making hotel reservations is also easy and
only takes one toll-free phone call to VIP Meetings at 800-926-3976.
Several hotels are offering special discounts during the Tobacco Plus
Expo including the Las Vegas Hilton Hotel (the hotel where the 2010 NATO
Annual Dinner will be held) and the Encore at
The 2010 NATO Annual Awards Dinner will
be held on the evening of Tuesday, March 2nd at the Las Vegas Hilton Hotel.
Invitations to this complimentary evening will be mailed to NATO
members in January.
Nov. 20, 2009
On Nov. 19th, it took less than a minute for the U.S. Senate Judiciary
Committee to discuss and pass Senate Bill Number 1147, the Prevent All
Cigarette Trafficking Act (PACT Act). The
fact that the bill had such widespread support by senators on the Judiciary
Committee is due, in part, to all of the telephone calls that NATO members
made to their
In a newspaper story published this week,
the Associated Press reports that the U.S. Department of Treasury through
the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau (TTB) is revising the federal
definitions for pipe and roll-your-own tobacco.
According to the AP story, this change in the definitions of these
tobacco products is a result of a significant shift in tax collections for
pipe and RYO tobacco after the federal tobacco tax increases took effect on
April 1st of this year.
The San Francisco Examiner reported this
week that a proposal is being considered by some
Oct. 14, 2009
Last week, BBK Tobacco & Foods, doing business as HBI International, filed a
federal lawsuit seeking to overturn the U.S. Food and Drug
Administration’s ban on flavored cigarette rolling papers that are sold in
separate packages. Specifically,
according to a representative of the company, "HBI is only seeking to
protect its brands, namely Juicy Jays and Skunk."
This is the third lawsuit that has been filed against the FDA in the
past six weeks regarding new tobacco regulations.
![]()
By
Jamie Ross
The company
says its sales of flavored papers comprise a "significant portion"
of annual profits, and the Act has had a "devastating impact" on
its business. It seeks an order
declaring that
The
Associated Press has reported in a story issued on October 1st
that the Food and Drug Administration has responded to the lawsuit brought
by several major cigarette manufacturers and a NATO member retailer
challenging the constitutionality of the ban on color tobacco advertising
and the new cigarette packaging health warning requirements.
As
you may recall, the lawsuit seeks to
have declared as unconstitutional the new FDA regulations that would:
Ø
Prohibit color lettering,
trademarks, brand logos and images on all retail point-of-sale advertising
and direct mail advertising.
Ø
Restrict tobacco product
advertising in retail stores to the use of black letters on a white
background to list the brand name, product size, price, etc. (also known as
“tombstone” advertising).
Ø
Prohibit any color imagery on
the packaging of cigarettes and smokeless tobacco products while requiring
graphic health warnings on the top half of the front and back of cigarette
packages.
Ø
Prohibit tobacco manufacturers
from making any statements about tobacco products in scientific, public
policy or political debates.
In
the Associated Press story, the FDA claims that the tobacco advertising
restrictions in the new law do not violate free speech and serve a greater
public health interest. In
addition, the AP article reports that “eleven public health and consumer
advocacy groups…also asked the federal court to reject the lawsuit, saying
the provisions are narrowly tailored to satisfy First Amendment
constitutional requirements."
As stated previously,
the U.S. Constitution protects free speech, including speech in the form
of product advertising. Moreover,
there have been several U.S. Supreme Court decisions on product advertising
that support the case challenging the FDA tobacco advertising restrictions.
A fairly recent case was decided by the U.S. Supreme Court in 2001.
In Lorillard Tobacco Co. v. Reilly, the Supreme Court struck
down a
The Supreme Court in the Lorillard case acknowledged that a government has an important public health interest in preventing minors from using tobacco. However, the Supreme Court held that “[t]he state’s interest in preventing underage tobacco use is substantial, and even compelling, but it is no less true that the sale and use of tobacco products by adults is a legal activity…[and] so long as the sale and use of tobacco is lawful for adults, the tobacco industry has a protected interest in communicating information about its products and adult consumers have an interest in receiving that information.” In other words, the law is on the industry’s side.
Kretek
International has sued the Food and Drug Administration in a declaratory
judgment action which seeks a ruling from the
In addition, NATO Vice-President Mary Szarmach provided comments on the
need for the FDA to consider different regulations for tobacco stores that
do not allow minors to enter the premises.
With tobacco stores selling legal tobacco products to adults only,
this unique situation may call for different regulations.
Also, NATO board member Fred Hoyt spoke about the need for the FDA to
regulate the Internet sale of tobacco products to avoid an increase in black
market sales. NATO Executive Tom
Briant stated that the FDA should place on hold the in-store black on white
advertising restrictions because of the pending lawsuit filed last week
against the FDA seeking to declare the restrictions as unconstitutional.
FDA Retail Listening Session Comments
|
19 Cigarette Tax Increases |
12
Cigarette Tax Increases |
|
|
North
Carolina: 10¢ |
OTP Tax Increases:
OTP tax increases were defeated or failed in
15 states and passed in 14 states.
The states where OTP taxes failed included Georgia, Indiana, Kansas,
Louisiana, Maryland, Minnesota, Mississippi, Montana, New Mexico, North
Dakota, South Dakota, Utah, Virginia, Washington and West Virginia.
The fourteen states that
enacted higher OTP taxes or changed the method of moist snuff taxation
included Arkansas, Florida, Hawaii, Kentucky, Maine, Nebraska, New
Hampshire, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, Texas, Vermont, Wisconsin and
Wyoming.
New federal
cigarette and tobacco tax rates went into effect on
| Product | Current Rates Through March 31, 2009 | Cigarette and Tobacco Tax Rate April, 1 2009 |
| Cigarettes | 39¢ per pack | $1.0066 per pack |
| Large Cigars | 20.719% of manufacturer’s price; cap of 4.875¢/cigar | 52.75% of manufacturer's price; cap of 40.26 per cigar |
| Little Cigars | 4¢ per pack | $1.0066 per pack |
| Pipe Tobacco | $1.0969 per pound | $2.8311 per pound |
| Chewing Tobacco | 19.5¢ per pound | 50.33¢ per pound |
| Snuff | 58.5¢ per pound | $1.51 per pound |
| RYO; Cigar Wrappers | $1.0969 per pound | $24.78 per pound |
| Cigarette Paper | 1.22¢ per 50 papers | 3.15¢ per 50 papers |
| Cigarette Tubes | 2.44¢ per 50 tubes | 6.30¢ per 50 tubes |
The NATO website now includes a directory filled with manufacturer and distributor company logos, contact information, product summaries and hotlinks to each member’s website. Retail members are encouraged to visit this directory to learn about NATO manufacturer and distributor members and the products they offer. This is a unique service to assist NATO retail members find manufacturer and distributor websites. For those manufacturers and distributors that have not yet sent in their logo, contact information and website address, please forward that information to NATO at info@natocentral.org.