PM sues NY retailers

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Philip Morris USA (PM USA) has filed two more lawsuits in the US District Court against 34 retailers of New York City, who are known to sell counterfeit Marlboro cigarettes.
The new lawsuits come as part of PM USA’s successful policy of issuing a legal challenge to every retailer who sells counterfeit versions of its products. With the latest lawsuits, PM USA has sued a total of 212 New York retailers. Because New York City has the highest cigarette tax rate in the US, counterfeiting is extremely common and according to PM USA estimates, over 3 million packs of counterfeit Marlboro cigarettes are found there annually.

This also means that the state and city tax lost on 3 million counterfeit packs exceeds US$17.5 million.
Counterfeit cigarettes are mainly produced in China and then smuggled into the US. Counterfeit Marlboro cigarettes are also sold online through China-based websites and PM USA has already sued two China-based websites, olymall.com and owncig.com for selling counterfeit cigarettes on the Internet.

Quarter 1, 2012

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