Updated: 01.26.2010

Increased sales of tobacco products over the Internet and through the mail pose a major challenge to public health efforts to reduce smoking and other tobacco use. By failing to consistently verify a purchaser's age, the proliferation of Web sites selling tobacco products make it easier and cheaper for kids to buy cigarettes.

Internet sales also offer a way to evade tobacco and sales taxes, keeping cigarette prices down and smoking levels up. The tax evasion reduces state revenues, some of which should be used to fund state and local efforts to curtail tobacco use.

Current federal laws on mail-order sales are weak and outdated. That's why Congress must pass the Prevent All Cigarette Trafficking (PACT) Act, which would ban the delivery of tobacco products through the U.S. mail and take other steps to address this problem.

The Problem

• Up from only a handful in the late 1990's, more than 700 Web sites sold tobacco products to U.S. consumers in 2006.

• Internet sales accounted for 14 percent of the total U.S. market in 2005, according to a Prudential Securities report.

• According to a study in the April 2004 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association, 96 percent of youths aged 15 to 16 were able to place an Internet order for cigarettes in less than 25 minutes, with most finishing within seven minutes .

• Three-quarters of all Internet tobacco sellers say they will not report cigarette sales to tax collection officials, violating Federal law, according to the U.S. General Accounting Office.

• States lose as much as $1.4 billion annually in uncollected tobacco taxes through Internet sales, according to a study by Forrester Research Inc.

The Solution

The Prevent All Cigarette Trafficking (PACT) Act would provide a comprehensive solution to tobacco excise tax evasion and sales to youth caused by Internet sales of tobacco products.

The legislation would ban the delivery of tobacco products through the U.S. mail.  It also would:

• Require Internet and mail-order sellers to pay all federal, state, local or Tribal tobacco taxes and affix tax stamps before delivery to any customer;

• Mandate that sellers check the age and identification of purchasers;

• Require Internet sellers to comply with state and local laws as if they were retailers located in the same state as their customers; and

• Allow states to block delivery of cigarettes and smokeless tobacco sold by Internet sellers that evade federal or state laws. 

The House of Representatives passed the measure, H.R. 1676 sponsored by Rep. Anthony Weiner (D-NY), by a 397-11 vote in May 2009. The Senate Judiciary Committee approved a similar bill, S. 1147 sponsored by Sen. Herb Kohl (D-WI), in November 2009.  A previous version of the legislation cleared the Senate unanimously in 2003.

The Campaign and other public health groups strongly support the PACT Act.