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LONDON — Six retailers and tobacco firms have agreed to pay combined fines of more than 130 million pounds after admitting "unlawful practices" relating to retail tobacco prices, the Office of Fair Trading said.

Retailers Asda, Somerfield, First Quench, One Stop Stores and TM Retail plus manufacturer Gallaher agreed to pay 132.3 million pounds (165 million euros, 263 million dollars).

The fines come after the competition watchdog accused 12 firms of price-fixing, by either co-ordinating to link the price of some brands to rival products or exchanging proposed future retail prices between competitors.

An investigation into the six other firms named by the OFT three months ago — the Co-operative Group, Imperial Tobacco, Morrisons, Safeway, Shell and Tesco — is continuing.

OFT chief executive John Fingleton said in a statement Friday evening that companies should set their prices independently, to ensure the markets work well for consumers and the economy.

"The OFT is very pleased that the early co-operation of these parties has enabled the swift resolution of some of this case, which will significantly reduce the costs of pursuing the investigation for the OFT and the businesses concerned," he added.

The OFT investigation covered the period 2000-3. The companies which came to "early resolution agreements" led to a reduction in their fines, the watchdog said.

Even so, the Financial Times said Saturday the sum was still the biggest collective penalty the OFT had handed down.

As after the end of September 2008 the Estonian retailers will no longer be able to sell cigarettes with old tax stamps on which lower excise taxes have been paid, writes Postimees Online/LETA.

Tobacco retailers estimate that the only way to earn money on stocks that will remain after that deadline will be to destroy them as then the State will return the excise tax paid on them.

Different State authorities have come up with different estimations on how large are the stocks held in cigarettes in Estonia at the moment. The Ministry of Finance estimates that the stocks should be enough until the end of summer while the director of Institute of Economic Research Marje Josing stated that nine months’ reserves have been imported to Estonia.

As many as 40 people from the small provision shops and supermarkets in the Belait District attended the Tobacco Order Briefing held at the multipurpose hall of the Health Office yesterday.
The briefing was presented by Senior Medical Officer of the Tobacco Control Unit, Hj Rozaimi Hj Tengah. The briefing was mainly aimed at enhancing participants’ understanding in protecting public health as well as to gain their cooperation with regard to the Tobacco Order to be implemented come June 1.
Business owners were also briefed on cigarettes sales, licences and rules and regulations governing such business. Under Section 2 of the Controlling of Local Products Act, it is prohibited to sell cigarettes to those under 18 years of age (Chapter 9), by which any form of identification will be asked before purchase. Those who breach the rule will face a fine of up to B$5,000.
If any of the said conditions under the Tobacco Order 2005 and its regulations 2007 go unheeded, business owners’ licences will be revoked or suspended.

State Treasurer Scott Meacham says he would support the idea of having one single compact rate for all American Indian tribes that sell cigarettesin Oklahoma.
Meacham says he is not bailing out on a multiple-stamp system, but it would be easier to enforce a single rate. He believes that would help Oklahoma move forward with cutting down on smoking while raising more money to benefit better health in the state.
Attorneys from the Oklahoma Tax Commission and tribal smoke shops are currently working on an agreement that would limit the sales of low-tax cigarettes in the state.
The agreement would lift a restraining order and cut down on the number of cigarettes that can be sold with 6-cent tax stamps intended for use near the state’s borders.
Smoke shops that aren’t near a border must sell 86-cent stamps.

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In a victory for the tobacco industry, a federal appeals court threw out on Thursday an $800 billion class-action lawsuit on behalf of smokers who said they had been misled that light cigarettes were safer than regular ones.
Plaintiffs’ lawyers wanted to represent millions of people across the country who had smoked light cigarettes. But the court, saying it was impossible to generalize about why smokers chose light cigarettes, ruled that the group could not be treated as a class. Instead, smokers wanting to sue over the issue would have to do so individually.
There might be various reasons for a smoker to choose a light brand other than “the belief that lights were a healthier alternative,” the ruling said. Other possibilities are that a lights smoker “was unaware of that representation, preferred the taste of lights, or chose lights as an expression of personal style.”
Even though the ruling had been generally expected, and tobacco company stocks were little affected by the decision, analysts still viewed it as positive for the industry.
Several experts said the ruling, the latest in a string of industry victories in cases involving light cigarettes, relieved the tobacco industry of potentially billions in damages and could also deter other similar class-action lawsuits around the country. “It may be persuasive to judges around the country who might well be watching it,” said Carl W. Tobias, a law professor at the University of Richmond.

Ontario should follow the leads of New Brunswick and British Columbia and pass legislation enabling it to sue the big cigarettes companies to recover health-care costs associated with tobacco-related diseases. The way has been paved by those two provinces, and some American states, and it makes no sense for Ontario not to follow suit in a bid to recoup some of the funds paid by taxpayers that are directly attributable to the use of a cigarettes product.
Make no mistake, the big tobacco companies knew decades ago that their products are deadly. Heart disease, stroke, high blood pressure, cancer - the list of tobacco health ills goes on.
Dr. Richard Schabas, medical officer of health for the Hastings and Prince Edward Counties Health Unit, was one of about 100 mostly health officials who, in a letter sent about two years ago, urged Premier Dalton McGuinty to file the lawsuit.
The province declined without really explaining why. McGuinty should spell out the reasons for his decision to Ontarians.
New Brunswick passed legislation earlier this month that gave the province the legal authority to file the lawsuit against the tobacco companies. Attorney General T.J. Burke said those firms must be held accountable and that the province is moving ahead "aggressively with legal action."
Why not Ontario?
The Liberals imposed a new health tax in 2004, $750 deducted annually from pay and pensions in the form of an income tax. The government said the tax was necessary to keep the expensive health-care system running. Yet the lawsuit is a potential source of income that could negate the need for a regressive tax and provide funds to pump into health care - a system that is straining to counter the effects that tobacco has brought on our hospitals and cancer care system. Tapping into tobacco riches is the way to go - clearly provincial citizens deserve and need the money.
In Ontario, it is estimated that tobacco-related diseases cost the economy at least $1.7 billion in health-care annually, result in more than $2.6 billion in productivity losses and account for at least 500,000 hospital days each year, according to the Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care.
Meanwhile, tobacco taxes generated about $1.4 billion in 2004-05, the ministry estimated. Ontario is clearly losing more in health-care to tobacco than the weed is bringing into provincial tax coffers. For tax masters like McGuinty, that should tip the balance in favour of legal action.
Schabas made the point - correctly - that if a lawsuit is filed, it places tobacco companies in financial jeopardy.

A Federal High Court in Abuja Monday ordered the Federal Government to effect service of court process through substituted means on Philip Morris International, Switzerland.
Justice Binta Murtala-Nyako ordered that the court processes relating to the suit be served on the multi-national company by publishing it in a well circulated newspaper in Switzerland.
The judge gave the order at the resumed hearing of the suit filed by the government, demanding N5.3 trillion compensation from three tobacco companies for alleged havoc done to under-aged smokers, through their operations in Nigeria.
The order was sequel to an application by counsel to the government, Mrs Maryam Uwais, complaining of difficulties in effecting service on Philip Morris.
Other defendants to the suit are International Tobacco Limited, British American Tobacco Plc and two of its affiliates.
In the suit, filed by the Attorney General of the Federation, government contended that tobacco related products manufactured and sold by the defendants were addictive and hazardous to the public health.
Specifically, government is seeking a court injunction compelling them and their agents to cease the marketing, promotion, distribution and sale of the products to minors and under-age persons.
The plaintiff also asked for a court order restraining the defendants from representing or portraying to persons under the age of 18, any alluring and misleading image regarding tobacco related products.
It also asked the court to outlaw the sale and distribution of cigarettes products within 1,000 radius of any school, hospitals, cinemas, playhouses, children shopping area, child care facilities and other public areas.
The respondents, government said, should formulate and implement procedure for the verification of age at all points of sales of cigarettes related products.
The government demanded from the defendants N136.3 billion special damages occasioned by the conduct of the companies.
It also demanded N4.8 trillion as anticipatory damages for the future expenses to be borne by the government in paying for the havoc the defendants allegedly caused to public health.”
In addition, the government requested the court to order the companies to pay N130 billion as punitive damages for the companies’ alleged wrongful conduct.

Malawi opened its tobacco auction season on Monday with prices at record highs after the government set minimum prices and registered another international buyer.
The main auction floors, which opened in the capital Lilongwe on Monday, saw farmers sell their crop at between $6 and $11 per kg - much higher than the minimum price set by the government last month of $2.20.
Tobacco is Malawi’s mainstay, accounting for over 70 percent of exports and 15 percent of its gross domestic product, but for the last two years low prices have led to cuts in production.
For many years tobacco prices had hovered around 70-90 U.S. cents per kg, far lower than the $1 the industry says it costs to produce one kg of the golden leaf.
Prices started improving last year with farmers selling their crop between $1.60 and $1.70 per kg for the first time in several years after President Bingu wa Mutharika ordered buyers to offer better prices or leave the country.
Limbe Leaf Tobacco, majority-owned by the Swiss-registered Continental Tobacco Company, and U.S.-based Alliance One Tobacco, were the main active buyers. Last year, the government registered another international buyer, U.S.-based Premiere Leaf, in a bid to get better prices.
Two undisclosed Chinese companies had also been expected to buy cigarettes the crop this year.
"The competition on the market is working because that is the only reason why we saw good grade cigarettes go up to US$11 today for the first time," Tobacco Control Commission General Manager Godfrey Chaponda told Reuters. President Bingu wa Mutharika, who also farms tobacco, has accused buyers of running a cartel to fix prices but the companies have denied the allegations.
About 2 million of the country’s 13 million people depend on tobacco and related industries for their livelihood.