Cigarette Retailer Accused of Selling Unsafe Lighters

Federal product-safety regulators on Thursday accused Benicia, Calif.-based Cigarettes Cheaper, the nation’s largest discount cigarette retailer, of selling unsafe disposable lighters.

In an undercover sting last month, U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission agents purchased lighters at Cigarettes Cheaper outlets in Westwood, Santa Ana, Redondo Beach and other California locations, asking for models that were easy to use.

They were sold lighters without legally mandated child-resistant mechanisms, regulators said.

Company clerks also volunteered to disable safety tabs or showed agents how to do so, the agency reported.

Company executives dispute that their stores sold lighters without child-safety mechanisms, saying they bought the products from a company with an exemplary record.

“We’re confident in their compliance,” said Matt Graham, Cigarettes Cheaper’s attorney.

“[Cigarettes Cheaper] employees were violating the law and we caught them,” said Alan Schoem, CPSC’s director of compliance.

Under the terms of a permanent injunction, Cigarettes Cheaper agreed to stop selling lighters that do not meet federal standards and to instruct its employees not to tamper with safety switches.

Although the company has agreed to reform its practices, the government has filed a civil lawsuit seeking as much as $1.5 million in penalties for the violations.

But since the sting, company executives have circulated memos instructing employees not to remove lighters’ child-safety mechanisms or show how to disable them, even if they are asked to do so.

Cigarettes Cheaper has 442 stores nationwide, including about 230 in California.