Combating Illegal Trade - Strategy & Approach - Altria

Altria Group’s tobacco companies are committed to protecting their brands from illicit trade – including from both the counterfeiting of brands like Marlboro and the illegal importation, smuggling or diversion of genuine tobacco products.

Illicit trade in tobacco products undermines the investment our tobacco companies make in their brands and in the legitimate channels through which these products are sold and distributed. Altria’s tobacco companies dedicate resources to combating illicit trade and protecting this investment.

 

Strategy & Approach

Altria’s tobacco companies' strategy is to reduce the illicit trade of tobacco products through engagement with and support of law enforcement, market monitoring, litigation and legislation. Our companies take an aggressive and multi-faceted approach to addressing the illicit trade of their products. These efforts include:

  • supporting law enforcement and regulatory agencies at the federal, state and local levels, as well as outside the U.S., to address the distribution and sale of illicit tobacco products;
  • investigating those involved in importing and selling illicit cigarettes, including investigative programs in the U.S. and in China designed to support law enforcement action;
  • monitoring the marketplace through domestic and international intelligence gathering and product purchase programs to understand the illicit market;
  • enforcing applicable trade policies at the retail and wholesale level;
  • pursuing litigation to protect our trademarks;
  • supporting federal and state legislation to protect the legitimate distribution channels, impose more stringent penalties for the violation of laws and provide additional tools for law enforcement; and
  • implementing security features on our products to identify counterfeit.

 

Responsibility for combating the illicit trade of tobacco is managed by a brand integrity department that is part of Altria's legal department and is overseen by the General Counsel.

UNDERSTANDING ILLICIT TRADE

Learn More about the issue and who else it affects.

IN THEIR WORDS

"Recent law enforcement investigations ... have directly linked those involved in illicit tobacco trade to infamous terrorist organizations such as Hezbollah, Hamas and al Qaeda."

– Tobacco and Terror: How Cigarette Smuggling is Funding our Enemies Abroad – Rep. Pete King’s (NY-3) Staff

FEDERAL REGULATION OF TOBACCO

"Philip Morris USA’s submission to the FDA on Countervailing Effects of a Ban on Menthol Cigarettes"

Government Accountability Office Report

Read the Government Accountability Office's Report: Illicit Tobacco Various Schemes Are Used to Evade Taxes and Fees.

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