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La Escepcion - Interesting Newsletter

AlohaStyle

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I've been anxiously awaiting the arrival of the Italian RE La Escepcion cigar and was doing a little looking around online and came across an interesting newsletter released on Dec 22nd by Italy's official Habanos Distributor Diadema... I have heard it's really difficult to get cigars out of Italy and this newsletter really spells it out. It's also interesting how the last paragraph says they are stepping up searches in January to try and prevent incoming cigars.

Has anyone heard recent news for when this is hitting the shelves?


This is translated with Google:

We all know how the Internet is now an important tool and used, but can become - Sometimes even for simple-mindedness of users - a medium that offers the opportunity to commit illegal acts. One of these is just to buy tobacco online. The saving is usually the motivation that leads to making rash purchases of cigars by self-styled sites, scattered all over the world, offering products (often of dubious origin and quality) to very attractive prices on paper. But it is good to keep in mind that this is illegal in Italy!

We're talking about an action that in our Penal Code exactly is classified as contraband. The existing law is very clear about the penalties are heavy, and in both administrative and criminal matters involving a fine of 5.16 euro for each gram of the conventional product and imprisonment from two to five years. It 'best to make clear that the weight is not related to the actual weight of a cigar, but the conventional, so for a simple box of 25 cigars is subject to a penalty of € 645.00, not to mention that the goods will be confiscated of course .

Diadema Spa, as an importer and exclusive distributor for Italy of Habanos cigars, has always been sensitive to this problem and has intensified in recent weeks a work of research and systematic complaint to the Financial Police and the Autonomous Administration of Monopolies State, specifying all the websites on the net offering the purchase of Cuban cigars.

In these days have been reported 5 other portals (in addition to an Italian site) on which ads appear for the sale of Cuban cigars, many of them among the other patently false.

Our appreciation goes to the staff at this time of the Guardia di Finanza and the Autonomous Administration of State Monopolies, which is striving to stem the flow, trying to intercept from the month of January 2012, deliveries of cigars coming from 'Foreign and applying the more stringent the regulations, the protection of all tobacconists and enthusiasts of Habanos.
 
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Skitalets

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Nasty. So HSA's own distributor is going after their customers for buying online elsewhere.
 
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In Italy the government controls the price of tobacco products nationwide. So a cigar or pack of cigarettes will have the same price whether in Milan, Rome, or some small town somewhere. So they get the same tax from every pack etc. sold. It's good for both the consumer and the government because it limits the ability of the shop to price higher. Not like here where every municipality has it's own tax structure and every individual shop can make it's own pricing. I'm sure this has to do with the tax revenue etc.
 

Skitalets

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In Italy the government controls the price of tobacco products nationwide. So a cigar or pack of cigarettes will have the same price whether in Milan, Rome, or some small town somewhere. So they get the same tax from every pack etc. sold. It's good for both the consumer and the government because it limits the ability of the shop to price higher. Not like here where every municipality has it's own tax structure and every individual shop can make it's own pricing. I'm sure this has to do with the tax revenue etc.
Price controls are rarely if ever good for the consumer. They may limit the ability of stores to increase prices, but they also limit the ability of stores (and producers) to be more price competitive and lower prices, run sales, etc. It's econ 101 -- price controls produce deadweight loss and hurt consumers.
 

njstone

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In Italy the government controls the price of tobacco products nationwide. So a cigar or pack of cigarettes will have the same price whether in Milan, Rome, or some small town somewhere. So they get the same tax from every pack etc. sold. It's good for both the consumer and the government because it limits the ability of the shop to price higher. Not like here where every municipality has it's own tax structure and every individual shop can make it's own pricing. I'm sure this has to do with the tax revenue etc.
I disagree. It's not good for the consumer at all. In a free market, you can have sales, specials, etc., all of which is better for the consumer than price fixing.

Prices are set by the government here in Japan as well ... which is why I don't buy cigars here.
 
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All of what you guys said is well and good yet from my experience the pricing in Italy is very fair.

The opposite of your argument is what we have here in the States with tobacco. NY for example has a 75% tax on cigars versus PA with zero. How is that good for the consumer if I have to drive to PA to buy cigars for cheaper? It's not. Again take the internet out of it. I'll give you another example from when I used to smoke cigarettes. I lived on the queens side of the Nassau county /NYC Border. The cigarette tax in NYC was exorbitant compared to Nassau county. So there was a gas station on each side of the street and the border was in the middle. The one in NYC a pack was $9 and on the Nassau county side it was $5. If there was a federally controlled price even in the middle it would be better for the consumer.
 

AlohaStyle

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FYI... I got emails back from a couple vendors in Italy saying they had no updates on release dates. :(
 

Skitalets

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All of what you guys said is well and good yet from my experience the pricing in Italy is very fair.

The opposite of your argument is what we have here in the States with tobacco. NY for example has a 75% tax on cigars versus PA with zero. How is that good for the consumer if I have to drive to PA to buy cigars for cheaper? It's not. Again take the internet out of it. I'll give you another example from when I used to smoke cigarettes. I lived on the queens side of the Nassau county /NYC Border. The cigarette tax in NYC was exorbitant compared to Nassau county. So there was a gas station on each side of the street and the border was in the middle. The one in NYC a pack was $9 and on the Nassau county side it was $5. If there was a federally controlled price even in the middle it would be better for the consumer.
You're muddling tax rates and prices. All you have to do to solve the problem you're talking about is place a federal cap on state tobacco tax rates. (Which would be unconstitutional, incidentally.) Price controls don't inherently fix differences in state tax policy, and they're not required in order to fix those differences. Two totally separate issues.
 
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