Vice Squad
Wednesday, April 06, 2005
Internet Tobacco Sales Apparently Plummet
It looks like the pressure by state attorney generals on credit card companies and PayPal to remove their services from internet tobacco sellers (noted a few weeks ago on Vice Squad) has had the intended effect:
Two weeks after credit card companies announced they would no longer accept payment for tobacco products bought online, scores of Internet cigarette merchants have effectively lost the means to do business profitably, and are either limping along or have shut down their operations altogether.According to the linked New York Times article, internet sales made up 3.1 percent of the US cigarette market in 2004.
Thanks to Radley at The Agitator for the pointer.
Labels: internet, policing, tobacco