MEPs vote to end tobacco agreement
The agreement, first made in 2004 when the EU showed that the three major companies were colluding with the black market in tobacco smuggling that costs EU governments at least €10bn a year in lost taxes, is due to be renewed or ended by July.
But furious members of the European Parliament voted to end the agreement first drawn up by the European Commission in a deal to settle a court action against the companies long believed to be part of the smuggling racket.
They were even more incensed when it emerged that part of the €2bn being paid over 15 years by the big three companies was helping fund OLAF, the EU’s anti-fraud office that has been investigating dirty tricks by the industry.
http://www.irishexaminer.com/ireland/meps-vote-to-end-tobacco-agreement-386740.html
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8 checks to ensure your pesticide is not a fake
Growers are being urged to check their pesticides are genuine ahead of the spraying season, with an estimated 7-10% of products on the EU market being fake. Trade in illegal pesticides, involving organised criminal gangs, is increasing around the world, and last year Europol seized 190t of illegal counterfeit pesticides on the Continent.
http://www.fwi.co.uk/arable/8-checks-to-ensure-your-pesticide-is-not-a-fake.htm
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Online Marketplaces Leverage Technology to Tackle Fake Products
Selling a product online allows businesses to reach a wider audience and new customers. Companies have started leveraging technology to reduce the rate of return of products faced by online marketplaces, reports Payal Ganguly for ET Bureau. Online marketplace Luxepolis is venturing into the trend by utilizing Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) technology to tackle the problem of returns. Luxepolis sells products ranging from designer apparel to high-end automobiles. The company uses near-field communication (NFC) enabled tag and reader to decipher codes that are unique to every product in order to validate the returned item.
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Smuggling continues to grow
The cigarette black market continues to grow: 17.8%, in January 2016, compared to 17.5% in November 2015, according to the latest data provided by the Novel Research company, sent to ACTMedia by JTI Romania press office.
„Also in January 2016, the North-Eastern area continues to be the region most affected by the illegal cigarette trade, with a black market share of 36.8%, although it has decreased compared to November 2015, by over 10 p.p. The North-Western and Western areas also hold significant shares, although they are on a downward trend (28.3%, and respectively 26.7%).
http://actmedia.eu/daily/smuggling-continues-to-grow/62715
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Police seize tobacco allegedly smuggled by snowmobiles along St. Lawrence
Officials say they’ve broken up an alleged smuggling operation that was moving tobacco along the frozen shore of the St. Lawrence River on snowmobiles.
The Cornwall Regional Task Force says officers spotted five snowmobiles pulling snow tub sleds on March 2 and watched as the contents of the sleds were loaded into a cube van near Fraser Point, Que. Task force officers intercepted the snowmobile riders, while Quebec Provincial Police stopped the van and seized 2,678 kilograms of fine cut tobacco.
Eltingville husband and wife indicted in federal cigarette smuggling scheme
Fourteen people, including a Staten Island husband and wife, were indicted on federal charges for allegedly smuggling contraband cigarettes from southern states to sell in New York.
The defendants made a “substantial profit,” officials said, by purchasing large quantities of cigarettes in Missouri and Georgia, where the state tax is significantly cheaper, and selling them in New York, according to a 14-count indictment handed down Feb. 18 and unsealed last Thursday.
New York, which imposes a combined state-local tax of $5.85 per package compared with 22 cents in Missouri, lost more than $20 million as a result, according to a U.S. Department of Justice statement.
http://www.silive.com/news/index.ssf/2016/03/eltingville_husband_and_wife_b.html
Lear MorePharmaceuticals And Food Anti-Counterfeiting Technologies Market To Witness Enhanced Rate Of Application Till 2020: Grand View Research, Inc.
Deceptive representation of an original food product and pharmaceutical is referred to as counterfeiting. Increasing growth of low quality and cheap counterfeit products mainly pertaining to the food and pharmaceuticals industries have promoted the rate of implementation of anti-counterfeiting technologies. Trace technologies, covert features enabling and overt/visible feature are some of the key technologies associated with anti-counterfeiting.
Cigarette smuggling goes up in Romania in January
The cigarette smuggling rate increased in Romania to 17.8% in January, compared to a rate of 17.5% in November last year, according to Novel Research.
The north-east region continues to be the most affected area in Romania by cigarette smuggling. The illegal tobacco market had a share of 36.8% in the total market in this region and there are villages in Suceava and Botosani counties where contraband cigarettes represent almost 90% of the total consumption.
http://www.romania-insider.com/cigarette-smuggling-goes-up-in-romania-in-january/166583/
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Girl used in tobacco-smuggling operation
TWO men were arrested after a 14-year-old girl was caught crossing over from the occupied areas with 10 kilos of tobacco, police said on Wednesday. The men, 33 and 25, are Nicosia residents. They are being investigated for illegally possessing untaxed goods, and smuggling.
At around 7:20pm on Tuesday, police said, customs stopped the young girl at the Ledra Palace checkpoint in Nicosia and found she was carrying 10 kilos of tobacco from the north.
In collaboration with police, they followed her to a meeting point at a parking area There, she met the two men who were in a car.
http://cyprus-mail.com/2016/03/09/girl-used-tobacco-smuggling-operation/
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Cigarettes: MEPs oppose renewing EU anti-smuggling deals with tobacco firms
MEPs urge the EU Commission to use all possible EU and international legal tools to combat cigarette smuggling© AP Images/European Union – EP
A majority of MEPs urged the European Commission not to renew an EU anti-smuggling and anti-counterfeiting deal with Philip Morris International (PMI), which expires in July 2016, in a resolution voted on Wednesday. Instead, they ask it to focus on using EU and international legislative tools to combat smuggling.
MEPs note that the PMI deal proved ineffective because although it initially reduced smuggling, a surge in smuggled non-branded “cheap white” cigarettes soon filled the gap.