DHL to Restrict Cigarette Shipments

DHL Worldwide Express said Tuesday that it would stop delivering cigarettes bought over the Internet or through the mail to individual consumers nationwide.

Under an agreement with New York Atty. Gen. Eliot Spitzer, DHL becomes the first major shipping company to agree to a ban. Negotiations continue with other companies as well as with the U.S. Postal Service.

Tuesday’s announcement follows a March deal in which major credit card companies began refusing to participate in Internet sales of cigarettes nationwide.

The DHL agreement with Spitzer and the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives is aimed at ending a common method for youths to obtain cigarettes, which can’t legally be sold to anyone under age 18.

DHL General Counsel Jon Olin said the agreement was in the best interest of customers and the public. The company will still deliver tobacco products to licensed retailers and other authorized recipients.

Since 2004, state and federal law enforcement agencies have sought to crack down on Internet sales of cigarettes partly because buyers’ ages can’t be verified and partly because it costs state and local governments billions of dollars in sales tax.

States lose more than $1 billion a year in tax revenue from Internet tobacco sales, according to the ATF.

Spitzer has asked the postal service and private carriers to stop delivering cigarettes bought online.

The postal service, citing concerns about the privacy of mail, has declined a request by the National Assn. of Attorneys General to halt such cigarette shipments. Spitzer said Tuesday that he urged Congress to enact legislation banning the direct sale of cigarettes bought online or through the mail to individual consumers.

Peggy Gardner, a spokeswoman for United Parcel Service Inc., said the company had “been in talks with the New York attorney general’s office. Those have been very cooperative and open. Other than that, we can’t comment on the specific nature of those discussions.”

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Associated Press and Bloomberg News were used in compiling this report.