The enthusiasm of those who try the electronic cigarette for the first time must not fool us: the smoker, surprised by the “kick” of nicotine, is not promoting a cigarette, but a nicotine dispenser. Actually, the taste is strikingly similar to those bootleg or junk cigarettes commonly found in third world countries, made with poor quality tobacco. They would be unsmokable if they were not corrected with industrial quantities of additives, and electronic cigarettes contain only additives. Any expert tobacco taster would not bet a cent on a cigarette with these characteristics.

Waiting for some real tobacco

Virginia Tobacco used in Yesmokes

This aerosol of synthetic nicotine and chemical flavorings cannot be a point of arrival, not only because it does not taste good, but particularly because it is unacceptable for the consumer. The electronic cigarette has the potential for success because it is an efficient nicotine dispenser, but this could only happen when real tobacco is the basic ingredient. This is the ground on which cigarette manufacturers should do battle, instead the refills today are produced by Chinese companies specialized in additives for the food industry.

Thanks to atomizers used for medical marijuana, by changing the vaporization temperature from 185/195 degrees for the active ingredient of cannabis, to 150 degrees for nicotine, they can vaporize pure tobacco without the nauseating smell of the artificial aromas. The limits come:

1. From the size of the instrument, because the vaporizer does not produce but must accumulate a sufficient amount of vapor for inhalation
2. by the smoking technique, which requires the direct inhalation of the vapor, as in water pipes.

The next step is to obtain the concentration of tobacco, to which propylene glycol, glycerin and water are added; these are necessary to form the vapor with the atomizer of the electronic cigarette.

Vaporization of pure tobacco

The arrival of a refill of pure tobacco would upset the market because it would change both the product and also those who produce it and, who knows … it might even mark the beginning of a gradual decline of the traditional cigarettes.

The cigarette multinationals, who today seem extraneous to the debate, are actually ready to break into the sector, because they began studying electronic cigarettes already back in the early 1990s.

In 2005, the Los Angeles Times published an article, “The Mystery of Philip Morris’ Nicotine Inhaler”: “This device of the tobacco giant —wrote the Los Angeles Times— invented years ago in secret, could be a boon for those who have the smoking habit, but the project seems to be stalled.” According to the Los Angeles Times, Philip Morris had kept the “Nicotine inhalator” in the drawer not because they underestimated it, but, on the contrary, because they feared the risk of “cannibalizing” the company’s established brands, such as Marlboro.

A Sector still completely without rules

If they use real tobacco in electronic cigarettes, who will be the seller, the pharmacy or the tobacco shop? How will tobacco excise duties be applied and how much will the prices change? That the electronic cigarette is waiting for regulations, restrictions and information campaigns that could disrupt the tobacco industry is an obvious fact.

There aren’t even any health warnings yet, and the advertising for electronic cigarettes looks a lot like the slogans that we used to see everywhere in the 1940s and '50s, when Camels were “the cigarettes most smoked by doctors”, and Marlboro cigarettes were “recognized by eminent medical authorities for their benefits to the nose and throat”.

Electronic Cigarette – No to the “Chemical Aerosols”

Behind the scenes of Big Tobacco, there must be considerable agitation, it’s a difficult decision. In the end there is sure to be one big winner in the war, the State; it will be able to earn more because it can compensate the price drop by increasing taxes.

Until a short time ago, in Italy there was the “minimum price”, followed by the “minimum tax”; these laws forced competitors to match the price increases decided by Big Tobacco; the cartel of the multinationals was free to raise prices whenever it wanted to increase its profits. People called it the cigarette “Sting”, believing it was the State, hungry for tax revenues, that was raising prices by increasing taxes.

So, the earnings of the producers skyrocketed after 2005, the year of the introduction of the 'minimum price: according to our calculations Philip Morris was making a profit of 600% on Marlboros, BAT 375% on its MSs and JTI 430% on Camels.

The loser was the State: in Italy, the excise duty has been stuck at 58.5% since 2004, while in France it has been raised to 64.5%. Why should Philip Morris earn more in Italy than in it earns in France, and why should the Italian State earn less than the French? Fortunately, this year the situation has changed, thanks both to the European Union that abolished the minimum price, and to Yesmoke that is bringing free competition into the tobacco market.

The multinationals, going to war, as Imperial has just done, will not only have to make drastic cuts in their profits, they will also start competing with each other: Diana cigarettes at 4.00 euro, for example, would increase sales at the expense of Marlboros that bring Philip Morris higher profits. Furthermore, any price drop would lead to a lower recalculation of the minimum excise, allowing Yesmoke to lower its prices even more.

Yesmoke’s All Out War

The little Italian company's strategy is to sell a high-quality product at cost price, forcing the other manufacturers to reduce their profits to keep their prices competitive. This would form a base on which the State could raise taxes proportionately and increase its fiscal income.

Imperial Tobacco has already made the decision to lower its prices. But it probably doesn’t know that the real war has yet to begin: today Yesmoke, selling at 4.00 euro, still makes a profit of 178%. What will Imperial do when the government increases the excise duty and VAT, and Yesmokes remain undeterred at 4.00 euro?

Big Tobacco is not facing an ordinary opponent; it's all explained in the “Mission” of the Settimo Torinese company:

“Yesmoke is a warship, ready to devote all its resources to the financial damage of the cartel of cigarette manufacturers, and to the benefit of the community. The final objective is to eradicate the plague of Big Tobacco from society. And Yesmoke has one big advantage: its existence and its market strategies are not dedicated to making a profit, but rather to having fun”.

The anti-Big Tobacco Company has big ambitions: to bring cigarette production back to Italy. Until 2004, 98% of Italian cigarettes was produced in Italy (Italy’s Ente Tabacchi even produced Marlboros for Philip Morris). The situation was totally inverted when the entire market was sold-off to the multinational giants. Today 98% of the cigarettes sold in Italy are owned by the cartel of foreign companies, and these companies have sacked the Italian workers, closed down the Italian cigarette factories and transferred all their production abroad.

Big Tobacco, to keep up with Yesmoke, risks setting off along a dead end street, with a loss of earnings that year after year, could reach enormous figures. It would do well to avoid taking rash steps, and it had better resign itself to the presence of a new competitor, a company destined to acquire a significant share of the cigarette market.

Learn More

• Mission
• Big Tobacco Cartel in Italy
• The Tax Evasion of Big Tobacco in Italy – Balances Attached
• Cigarette Taxes – The Swindle Continues
• Cigarette Taxes in Italy – Lobbyists Unleashed
• Big Tobacco & the AAMS: the Swindle Continues

Italy – Outbreak of the Cigarette Price War?

The captivating story highlights the subjugation of this country to the interests of the foreign multinational of the day, with sleazy characters who are prepared to do anything to sabotage a company that works 3 shifts a day and 7 days a week, characters who behave as if Italian workers and their families do not exist.

This “Mafia” turned out to be as dangerous as it was incompetent. Its efforts were totally fruitless; so today, after overcoming the obstacles it set up, Yesmoke is the only company in the sector that is growing.

“Relocation” to the Land of Spaghetti

When Big Tobacco, with the privatization of the Ente Tabacchi Italiani – ETI S.p.A. – (a public company operating in the tobacco sector), became the owner of the Italian cigarette brands and then transferred all its production abroad laying off thousands of workers, everybody in the Belpaese looked the other way and just minded their own business. But in 2004 when Yesmoke SA, a Swiss company, world leader in the wholesale and online sale of cigarettes, announced its intention to “relocate” in Italy, build a factory to produce its own brand, creating the first private Italian cigarette producer company since the end of the monopoly, everybody took up arms to sabotage the “intruder”.

The story begins with Yesmoke’s “welcome” to Italy: the company’s Italian owners, collaborators and employees find themselves immediately at the center of an investigation into “large scale” cigarette smuggling, with the invention of a millionaire debt towards the State aimed at deterring the transfer of its capital from Switzerland. A grotesque inquiry ensues with wire-tapping, surveillance, press releases full of bullshit, false evidence and violation of investigation secrecy … all following the classic ritual of the Italiot judiciary.

The Preventive Arrest

Leo Sisti, a journalist with a “bagman” reputation, kicked off the war against Yesmoke

Kicking off the dance is the journalist Leo Sisti, who in September 2004 in an article in L'Espresso entitled «Come è Bello Fumare sul Web» (How Beautiful it is to Smoke on the Web), points the spotlight on Yesmoke and says nice things about the company but concludes: “The mystery continues, and the OLAF, the Police Anti-Fraud Office of the European Union, wants to see what’s actually going on”. The title seems to be the introduction to the following scenario: Yesmoke’ people smoking in a cell, for which Leo Sisti probably had another article already in mind.

In December 2004, the “Internet smoking” investigation kicks off. The financial police — Guardia di Finanza —, sent by Judge Ubaldo Pelosi of the Attorney's Office of Imperia, arrive at dawn at the homes of the Italian owners and employees of Yesmoke. The investigators hope to find some cartons of cigarettes coming from the company stores in Switzerland, destined to personal use or to gifts for friends. According to law 291 Bis, DPR 23 Jan73, no.43, ten kilos of tobacco products without Italian tax stamps are enough to send the possessors to jail. But no cigarettes are found.

Fiscal Intimidation

Judge Ubaldo Pelosi, of the Court of Imperia, was the prosecutor of the “Internet smoking” investigation into Yesmoke’s activities

The “Internet smoking” investigation continues and in January 2005, here comes the move that should neutralize any ambitions of Yesmoke on Italian soil: a request for 23 million euro for unpaid taxes on cigarettes sold in Italy (a country where the online store did not sell) through the Yesmoke.com domain. The document, entirely invented, even specifies the sales made in 1998 and 1999 when Yesmoke, the online store and the domain (registered in January 2000) did not even exist.

Despite the sword of Damocles of 23 million, Yesmoke transfers to Italy its capital of 40 million euro and begins building its factory in Turin. But the daring entrepreneurs cannot find a bank: the San Paolo di Torino, today Banca Intesa, the "Subalpine" company par excellence, refuses to open any accounts for them and invites the owners to try elsewhere, taking also their private accounts with them. Banca

Intesa is the bank of Philip Morris, and Yesmoke, even if it is a Turin-based company, cannot share the same roof with Big Tobacco.

Turin: its landmark, the Mole Antonelliana, and the future Banca Intesa skyscraper

After extensive investigations, including “possible Mafia plots”, in June 2007 in Milan the trial for smuggling begins, and after three and a half years of transfers from one public prosecutor’s office to another, in December 2010 the Court of Turin puts an end to the farce, acquitting the accused of all the charges, including the mega tax evasion, because the fact does not exist.

The Paradoxical War with the State

In the land of spaghetti, the State does not hesitate to close down an Italian business to protect the interests of foreign companies. The State Monopolies Agency –AAMS (Azienda Autonoma Monopoli di Stato) starts up a paradoxical war against Yesmoke, a new company that is creating jobs and exporting its products; the agency looks through the regulations for any pretext to thwart the little start-up. Closing an Italian company that is working well seems to be part of the institutional duties of the AAMS.

In December 2010, the ex-State Monopolies do not renew Yesmoke’s authorization for the tax deposit needed for the manufacture of cigarettes. The machinery has to stop and all the workers are sent home in redundancy. The AAMS asks for a guarantee deposit, in line with the regulations, of 2 million 400 thousand euro. Yesmoke refuses to provide this sum as the company has all the prerequisites for exemption. A company that creates jobs should be encouraged; instead Yesmoke, that was working 3 shifts 7 days a week and was hiring new workers, was expected to take 2.4 million away from its development projects or close … It seems almost like the treatment that Fiat does! The factory shutdown lasts 67 days, until the Regional Administrative Court — the TAR — of Piedmont opens the doors again and lets the workers go back to their jobs.

For the “blitz” at Yesmoke, three vans and a dozen police cars of the Carabinieri, Guardia di Finanza and Digos were mobilized

After almost a year, the AAMS tries again: this time to close the company it arrives with dozens of police officers in riot gear, the Carabinieri, the Financial Police — Guardia di Finanza and the Digos — the Italian Secret Service. Faced with the strong opposition of Yesmoke’s workers, the police chose to not use force. But Yesmoke must close, “the law is the law”! So the “embargo” of the AAMS starts again. The factory, however, occupied by its workers, continues producing, stockpiling cigarettes that it is unable to ship out of the plant. “The embargo” lasts 39 days, until another sentence of the Regional Court — the TAR — is announced in Yesmoke’s favor.

At this point, given the one-sided struggle, Yesmoke decides to provide the useless and unfair deposit. However, in spite of its booming business, it finds the doors of all the Italian banks closed. It is a foreign financial institution that eventually provides the bank guarantee of 2.4 million euro, with which Yesmoke finally puts an end to the farce.

In the End Yesmoke Is the Winner

In 2012 the TAR of Lazio eliminated the ridiculous “minimum tax”, with which the government had circumvented the judgment of the European Court sentence that had abolished the minimum price. The Italian tobacco market was finally liberalized. So in the end, the State, after running out of ammunition, seems to have put an end to its obscene “shooting spree” at Yesmoke and its workers.

Today Yesmoke is growing at a rate never before seen in the sector.

Learn more

• Big Tobacco cartel in Italy
• “Internet smoking” inquiry
• Com'è bello fumare sul web – La Repubblica – September 9, 2004
• Yesmoke assolta, non fu reato vendere le sigarette via internet – La Repubblica – December 22, 2010

Italy: the Cigarette “Mafia” in Action

Murales at Yesmoke's Turin plant

Cigarettes, a food product according to the law, that can be enhanced with illegal chemical cocktails to increase the the consumers’ addiction, is not subjected to inspections like other food products. In the European Union, only the values of nicotine, tar and carbon monoxide are analyzed. As for the rest of the contents, believe it or not, only a "self-certification" of the manufacturer is needed and he is free to declare whatever he wants.

So, any tobacco processor who wants to add ammonia to tobacco, producing so-called "crack nicotine" that increases addiction to the product, can do so because there are no inspections.

The European Commission, in its draft revision of the directive on tobacco, presented on December 19th, 2012, did not dedicate any efforts to the introduction of the checks that are lacking today; it merely proposed some measures with little impact, which are only a very small step in the right direction, such as the prohibition to use some ingredients of little significance.

«Ammonia key to Marlboro's success» (The Associated Press) Murales at Yesmoke's Turin plant

The draft proposes banning substances such as vitamins and other similar additives "that create the impression that a tobacco product can produce health benefits," caffeine, taurine, and other compounds, which, while not producing any stimulating effect in the form of smoke , "have a connotation of energy and vitality," additives with coloring properties of the smoke, additives that add a 'characteristic' taste, such as cigarettes flavored with mint or much less widespread, with strawberry, cherry or lavender ...

Here is the state of of the inspections on additives and emissions of cigarettes, as summarized in the draft of the European Commission:

"Member States shall arrange that manufacturers and importers of tobacco products submit to the competent authorities a list, with the relative quantities of all the ingredients used in the processing of these products, broken down by brand and type, with an indication of the emissions and levels. The list shall be accompanied by a statement specifying the reasons for the inclusion of such ingredients in these tobacco products.

To measure the tar, nicotine and carbon monoxide content in cigarettes, reference should be made to the ISO 4387, 10315 and 845 standards, internationally recognized. There are no internationally agreed standards or tests to quantify the levels of other emissions, work is being done to define them".

The statement, " work is being done to define them " is puzzling, because nobody is talking about new standards or tests.

The European Commission, besides confirming the manufacturer‘s "self-certification" of the ingredients, merely suggested to the individual States, that they carry out some optional checks on other emissions, in addition to the controls specified on nicotine, tar and CO, .

In Italy both the Healthcare and European Union Policies Commission of the Senate, and the Social Affairs and European Affairs Commissions of the Chamber of Deputies, rejected the European Commission’s draft on all points and they also dismissed the idea of optional checks, with a brief and meaningless explanation in coarse political jargon.

"The EU Directive proposal encourages Member States to act independently in areas such as measuring emissions other than nicotine, tar and carbon monoxide. Such proposals form the basis for significant differences among the Member States and the consequent restrictions on the free movement of goods ".

We have no doubt that before we see any real "anti-doping inspections" on cigarettes a lot of water is going to pass under the bridge, even in modern Europe.

Learn More

• UE – Draft revision of the directive on tobacco
• Crack nicotine
• Ammonia technology
• The no logo pack, a show of Italian cronyism
• What is there in American cigarettes?
• 7 bastards are all liars

Health: Europe forgets inspections on cigarettes

Italian politicians have lined up compact on the side of foreign cigarette manufacturers on all points: total opposition to the no-logo plain packaging, yes to “slims” and to menthol cigarettes, and yes even to the 10-cigarette half-pack, now abolished in all the other countries of the European Union.

The explanations of the Senate, in coarse “political jargon”, contain an incredible delirium of incomprehensible theories, difficult to comment:

“The unjustified ban of these legal products: (a) would lead consumers to switch to cheaper products, (b) would induce the competition to base their policies only on price, leading to a reduction in the average price of tobacco products, and (c) would bring about a significant growth of the illegal market (smuggling and counterfeiting), as standard packaging would be easier to replicate. The negative impacts of these consequences would be substantial on the legal resale, on tax revenues and on the industry; moreover, the results achieved by the proposed new Directive would be in conflict with the objective of safeguarding public health.”

It is difficult to understand why, in point (a), consumers would switch to cheaper products following the abolition of the pack of 10 cigarettes and the slims or with the introduction of the plain pack. Consequently, point (b) too, is incomprehensible: why should the average price of tobacco products drop? If there was the risk that without the logos, which valorize the well-known brands, many consumers would switch to Yesmokes that would cost less, what's wrong with that? Is the EU, perhaps, obliged to protect the profits of makers who sell the more expensive cigarettes at the expense of free competition? But even if, for whatever reason, the average price of cigarettes should fall, the State could raise taxes on them and increase its revenue; this was the intention of the European Commission when it abolished the minimum price and liberalized the market. Point (c) recalls the well-known hoax, exclusively Italian, insinuating that there would be an increase of smuggling and counterfeiting. Suffice it to say that the Senate seems to not even know that today we have computers, thanks to which we can copy any image or logo as easily as taking a photograph. Finally, the alleged ensuing catastrophic chain of events impacting resale, taxes and the industry does not find any reasonable explanation. Similarly, it is unclear how the European proposal could ever be in conflict with safeguarding the public health.

The Senate Committee was also concerned about the harmonization of the legislation of the Member States, and the limitations on the free movement of goods, based on reasoning just as incomprehensible. It is not even clear what is meant by “the free movement of goods” referring to cigarettes: is it the parallel market … or the smuggling market?

“The directive proposal urges Member States to act autonomously in various areas such as: measuring other emissions besides nicotine, tar and carbon monoxide, implementing further tests on other ingredients, requirements to prohibit products containing specific additives; the 'introduction of a licensing system for new products and the introduction of stricter rules on packaging (such as for example the plain pack). These proposals form a basis that could lead to significant differences among the Member States and consequent restrictions on the free movement of goods.”

Walter Verini (PD) member of the Commission for Social Affairs and European Policies of the Chamber of Deputies

On the 20th of February, the Commission for Social Affairs and European Policies of the Chamber of Deputies confirmed all the “concerns” of the Senate. Walter Verini, member of the Democratic Party, was the most “demential fighter”:

“In this issue, which opens the door to smuggling and counterfeiting, there is some infringement of national autonomy, so the Chamber has done the right thing, but I think we should go even further and wage a battle to change also the substance of the directive.”

The 10 Cigarettes Pack Objective

The real battle of the 3 tobacco giants in Italy — perhaps the lobbyists themselves do not know this — is not to maintain the “slims” or menthol cigarettes that are not very popular in the country anyway; they want to continue having their logos on the packs and, above all, they want to keep the half-pack of 10 cigarettes that makes up 20% of the Italian market and could disappear overnight.

But theirs is a losing battle: discussions may go on for years on the plain pack, but sooner or later Italy will have to introduce it following the course of the other countries. As for the unpresentable 10-pack “for children”, which still survives only in 2 or 3 countries of the Third World, it will soon be abolished thanks to Yesmoke’s efforts, just like what happened to the minimum price and the minimum tax.

Learn more

• Tabacco: Senato italiano boccia la direttiva di Borg – February 18, 2013 – eunews.it
• Camera dice no alla direttiva UE sulle sigarette slim – February 21, 2013 – ilvelino.it
• Tabacco: Verini (PD), dirwettiva UE apre la via a contrabbando e proibizionismo – February 21, 2013 – sassarinotizie.com
• The no logo pack, a show of italian cronyism
• The 10–cigarette pack – Yesmoke denounces Italy
• Proposta di direttiva sulla lavorazione, presentazione e vendita del tabacco e dei prodotti correlati – camera.it 

Cigarettes: the Senate and Chamber of Deputies against the EU

If you move your business away across the border, the tobacco “lobby” is on your side, but if you want to bring capital into Italy and set up a cigarette factory, disturbing the “cartel” of the multinationals, you’ll run into all sorts of obstacles, the “lobby” will make it almost impossible.

To prevent Yesmoke, a Swiss company, from becoming Italian, Big Tobacco moved judges, State agencies, politicians and journalists… All these efforts, however, ended up laying the foundations for the rebirth of Italian cigarette manufacturing, and the final outcome is comical.

The “intruder”, after surviving the attacks of the “lobby”, not only found itself inside the “cartel” taking a share of the cake as if it were a multinational corporation, but it is also on the way to becoming the master of the house!

Checkmate Big Tobacco

Those who thought up the minimum price and the minimum tax on cigarettes, laws that enabled the “cartel” of Philip Morris, British American Tobacco and Japan Tobacco Italia to earn more and more and to keep competitors out of the market, did not consider that, sooner or later, the “Belpaese” would be straightened out by the European Union that would abolish these laws.

When this happened, Yesmoke, the little start-up that had dared to venture into Big Tobacco’s hunting grounds, found itself alone with the three multinationals; without any other competition, the Turin company was ready to kick off its war on prices. So Philip Morris, BAT and JTI, accustomed to earning exorbitant profits in Italy, today find themselves having to deal with only one competitor. But it is the worst of all, the one that sells its products at a “political price”, aiming only at acquiring market share… For the Big Three, the party is over!

According to our calculations, Philip Morris earns a profit of 600% on Marlboros, BAT takes in 375% on its MS cigarettes and Japan Tobacco Italia makes 430% on Camels; these are profits that can be earned only in this country of sheep called Italy. Moreover, with all their production now transferred abroad, they can freely elude Italian taxes. Today Yesmokes, selling at 4 euro, cost 30 cents less than the least expensive brand of the big three. Trying to keep up with Yesmoke by lowering their prices will mean giving up hundreds of millions in profits every year; ignoring the Turin Company will mean losing a slice of their market.

But the real battle has not started yet: if with the current 30-cent difference, Yesmoke’s sales growth is unstoppable, what’s going to happen with the up-coming increase of the excise and the VAT? Big Tobacco will have to raise its prices to continue earning as before, while Yesmokes will still sell for 4 euro; the price difference will increase to 40, 50 or 60 cents. Yesmoke is prepared to sell at cost price; it is becoming the master of the house, and no one can do anything to stop it!

“Price Scams” End, “Free Competition” Begins

Since 2004, cigarette prices have risen steadily in Italy, but driving this “sting”, 10 cents at a time, was not, as everyone believes, the State raising taxes, it was Philip Morris, BAT and Japan Tobacco inflating their prices to earn more. This happened thanks to the coordinated price increases decided by the “cartel” of the three multinationals, and it could happen only in a market without free competition because it was protected first by the minimum price and then by the minimum tax.

The swindle boosted Philip Morris’s profits on Marlboros up to 600%, and prevented the Italian State from increasing excise duties and VAT. But the European Court of Justice restored a competitive market when it enforced the abolition of the minimum price and the minimum tax. Now the State can raise cigarette prices and increase its tax revenues, and the multinationals will no longer be able to make the profits they were used to because they will have Yesmoke to deal with.

Learn More

• Italy's Ass-kissers
• Big Tobacco cartel in Italy
• Italian State vs Yesmoke
• Mission
• Minimum price of cigarettes
• Tax evasion in Italy
• Cigarettes: new government; same old swindle
• Cigarette taxes in Italy: lobbyists unleashed

The Tobacco Lobby: the More You Down it… the More it Lifts You up

Here is the letter sent to Yesmoke by the former workers of British American Tobacco, left without jobs after BAT’s “conversion bluff”.

The call for help of 67 families

Lecce, January 25th, 2013 – to the General Manager of Yesmoke SpA in Settimo Torinese.

We, all former BAT employees of the factory in Lecce (currently laid off by IP srl and on redundancy pay), are writing to thank you for the attention you are dedicating to our situation. We know that you tried to buy out the Lecce plant with all of us employees and that they did not allow you to do so … As usual, when dealing with large international corporations, there are always too many “powers” involved in the affair, which act only in their own interests and do not think about the jobs that will be lost and the many families who will be left on the streets.

Now, unfortunately, as already mentioned above, we have been laid off with the hope that the IP srl company will set up the factory again, move the machinery needed for production from Sabaudia and call about 30 of us back to work. The other workers then should be transferred to a new company (OCMA of Ascoli), but no one knows when. We no longer believe in all this, considering past events, and we know that the institutions, too, do not do what they should …

Workers protesting outside the headquarters of British American Tobacco

With this in mind, and relying on your good sense, we would like to make a request … Now that your production is progressively increasing and considering your statement that you will need to open a new plant, we ask: why don’t you give a little thought to coming to Lecce??? Here, as you already know, you will have 65 employees already trained and ready to work, and a territory of Italy where you can take advantage of the tax exemptions that are available in areas of the South.

I know that our request is perhaps a bit “too pretentious”, but it is a request that comes from the heart. Then, certainly you would be much more “True and Honest” than the many puppets that we have to face every day.

We thank you for your attention and we extend our cordial regards – 67 ex-BAT workers.

Movimento Dipendenti – Employees Movement

Ip Korus Stab. Lecce

Viale della Repubblica 17, 73100 - Lecce

Yesmoke’s answer to the workers of Lecce

Settimo Torinese, January 29th, 2012 – Dear workers,

Building a factory in Lecce, where BAT has left scorched earth, and revive an age-old tradition would be a double satisfaction for us, but today we are expanding the Yesmoke plant in Turin, where by the end of 2013, we will have a manufacturing capacity identical to what the tobacco factory in Lecce used to have. Moreover, building a new factory would take too long: the G.D and Garbuio companies would be delivering their machinery in 2 years, and the workers cannot wait.

Today we can keep in mind, when the time comes to hire, that in Lecce there may be specialists already trained, resigned to moving to cold and foggy Turin because BAT did not keep its promises.

The tobacco factory was a tradition and a wealth of your territory and to take it over, BAT received all kinds of facilitations; it had no right to then eradicate it. If our politicians had not stopped caring about the workers, BAT would not have been allowed to leave this scar.

Tax exemptions? Only for foreigners

The grants and tax exemptions are not a privilege of Italian companies, which disturb the rulers of the market. Yesmoke, born in Switzerland, “delocalized” into Italy, but it received no support, and they even tried in every way to bring about its closure.

In 2004, when we were planning the transfer, Yesmoke, that did not sell cigarettes in Italy, was sent a “ tax intimidation " of 23 million euro for presumed unpaid taxes on the sale of cigarettes in Italy, and the homes of the owners and of all the Italians collaborators were subjected to searches of an intimidating nature. In 2010 we were all acquitted because no offense was committed.

Then there was the minimum price, which served to protect BAT’s profits and to prevent the birth of new market competitors. Today, after a European Union ruling in 2012 abolished this law, Yesmoke is growing at a rate never before seen in the sector. How many more jobs would there be if there had never been the minimum price? How much do the unfair earnings of BAT amount to, and what gifts did their undercover collaborators receive?

They left without paying the bill

Instead of fulfilling its commitments with its workers, today BAT is funding with extravagance, foundations, politicians, conferences, seminars, round tables … always full of journalists, where everyone agrees that the abolition of the manufacturers’ logos on cigarette packs (the plain pack) proposed by the European Commission, would be a catastrophe for the “supply chain” and for employment. While nothing is being done for the workers, all the powers of the country are acting to save BAT’s logos.

A solution would amount to a bit of change for BAT, considering its profits in excess of 500%, which the company can earn only in Italy thanks to a fiscal policy studied in terms of its profits. With an investment that would be a drop in the ocean of its business, BAT could certainly find a way to fulfill its commitments.

Don’t give up, continue to make yourselves heard. Now that we are in the election campaign, politicians might just remember the workers.

Yesmoke S.p.A.

Lecce: the Former BAT Workers Write to Yesmoke

“No to cigarettes all with the same taste and flavor” – The FIT's ridicolous theory

“The Federazione Italiana Tabaccai (Italian Tobacconists Federation) says no to plain cigarette packaging, no to the abolition of the 'slim' format, no to the half pack of ten cigarettes and no to the elimination of tobacco additives, without which, it says, all cigarettes would have the same taste and flavor”.

Such is the ambiguous battle of the FIT, which on January 22nd paraded in Brussels in the demonstration of European Tobacconists. The event was organized by the CEDT – Confédération Européenne des Détaillants en Tabac (whose president is John Risso, president also of the FIT). The tobacco sellers were protesting against the European Commission’s proposed revision of Directive 2001/37/EC, which governs the presentation and sale of cigarettes.

Big Tobacco wants chemicals in cigarettes and the FIT cooperates

The fact that tobacco sellers demonstrate against the plain pack and against the prohibition to display products on their shelves and against the elimination of the “slims” is understandable. That they protest also against the abolition of the 10-cigarette half-pack (which still persists only in Italy and in two or three third world countries) is debatable. But when the FIT says to Italian tobacconists that the abolition of tobacco additives would make all cigarettes identical in taste and flavor, it is stating a gross misrepresentation.

There are a great number of types of tobacco, different in flavor and quality, with prices ranging from 1.50 to 6 euro per kilo; with these, makers can produce cigarettes totally different one from another

Big Tobacco, aside from its logos, its cigarette sizes and its half-size pack “for children”, is fighting for its additives because chemicals enable makers to use cheaper tobaccos. However, there is no basis for the belief that without additives all cigarettes would come out the same. For example, a kilogram of the Virginia tobacco that Yesmoke uses costs 6 euro, but if a maker wants to save, he can find it also for one euro fifty. In this scenario, tobacco sellers should line up on the side of their consumers and not listen to the falsehoods of the FIT, Big Tobacco’s most ramshackle lobbyist.

Electronic cigarettes, for example, do not contain any tobacco, but only chemical aromas. Could the dream of the multinationals be a cigarette without tobacco, with synthetic nicotine and surrogates, achieved with the support of Tobacconists?

The FIT is not even able to explain the only valid reason (that does not coincide with the interests of Big Tobacco) that could oppose the elimination of additives as proposed by the European Commission: Burley, very popular in Italy, is a particular tobacco that requires the use of certain additives in its processing; the absence of these could make it difficult to sell and create problems for tobacco farmers in Umbria and Campania.

A question of sponsors

In 1998, the FIT declared that the loss of revenue of Italian retailers in that year (due to smuggling organized by the top echelon of Big Tobacco) was 400 billion lire (an estimate confirmed by the data of the Financial Police and the Monopolies Administration); this sum divided by Italy’s 50,000 tobacco outlets indicates a loss of 8 million old lira each.

January 22nd, 2013: the FIT parades in Brussels against “cigarettes all with the same taste and flavor”

But those were other times, the FIT today has put its sponsors on sportswear and has become a pseudo-federation that stands out for its boycott of Yesmoke, as if the Turin company were the enemy number one. It always acts in favor of the cartel of the three multinationals, Philip Morris, British American Tobacco and Japan Tobacco Italy, pretending to promote the interests of tobacconists.

In February 2009, in the lawsuit that saw the European Union and Yesmoke lined up against Italy, the TAR- Regional Administrative Court - of Lazio suspended the minimum price, which was permanently abolished in April 2012. As a result, Yesmoke was able to drop its cigarette price from 3.60 to 3.40 euro a pack. The FIT refused to inform its tobacconists, denying that Yesmokes had become cheaper and indicating the risk of non-existent penalties for those who sold them at 3.40. It thus neutralized the sentence of the Court… a great job!

With figures, which compared to its earnings are just pocket money, Big Tobacco in Italy fodders everyone, the FIT included. The most active and ubiquitous tobacco giant is British American Tobacco; it is the official sponsor in Italy of foundations, politicians, associations, forums, round tables, conferences and anything and anyone who can be useful to safeguard its privileges and profits.

Not one of its bootlickers, have moved a finger to defend the thousands of tobacco workers who have lost their jobs following the privatization and the sale of Italy’s tobacco works to BAT, which then transferred undisturbed its entire production outside of Italy. Nor have Big Tobacco’s supporters ever made the big three cigarette multinationals pay taxes in Italy, companies that make incredible profits and evade Italian taxes with impunity, while tobacconists have to pay down to the last cent.

Learn more

• UE: tabaccai in protesta a Bruxelles – TGCOM24 – January 22, 2013
• Novità per i fumatori: le sigarette avranno tutte lo stesso gusto – Iovivoaroma.it – January 23, 2013
• Risso (Fit) in 4000 tabaccai a Bruxelles, no a proposta UE – Adnkronos – January 23, 2013
• Proposta di direttiva del Parlamento europeo sulla presentazione e vendita dei prodotti del tabacco – Senato.it – January 16, 2013
• The no–logo pack, a show of italian cronysm

“No to Cigarettes All with the Same Taste and Flavor” – The FIT’s Show in Brussels

Carlo Rienzi (Codacons)

It sounds like a premature April Fools’ trick: but it’s just the latest brainstorm of Carlo Rienzi, the “volcanic” president of the Codacons (Coordinamento delle Associazioni dei Consumatori) one of Italy’s consumer and environment defense Associations, promoter of many “battles”. It is an unlikely class action where Italians can initiate legal action against the towns they live in, responsible for “pollution from cigarette smoke”; they can join the lawsuit for the modest registration fee of six euro.

“All the citizens of towns polluted with smog (from road traffic and cigarette smoke) can sue for damages by joining the collective action of the Codacons - Rienzi explained– they can request compensation of 2,000 euro for damage 'from smog', by simply joining the association at the cost of 6 euro. To take part in the initiative, they only need to follow the instructions on the www.codacons.it site.”

The Fatuous Misunderstanding of the Codacons between “Passive Smoke in Open Spaces” and “Air Pollution”

“A scientific study — says the Codacons — carried out by the ENEA (Italian National Agency for New Technologies, Energy and Sustainable Economic Development) has shown that cigarette smoke pollutes more than the exhaust pipes of cars. Based on this scientific evidence, we are asking mayors all over Italy to impose a ban on smoking in their municipal territory when air pollution levels exceed the limits set by law.”

But we can find no trace of this ENEA scientific study, neither on their website nor online. We contacted the agency and nobody knew anything about it, even though the organization is actively involved in air quality activities because, with its “Atmosfera” project, it provides services to cities and towns for forecasting and managing urban pollution.

Many California cities have “smoke free” zones in open spaces; their purpose is not to reduce air pollution, but to protect non-smokers from passive smoking

The only study that we found on the dangers of passive smoke in open spaces was conducted last year by the Istituto Tumori di Milano — the Cancer Institute of Milan —, but it says nothing about air pollution from cigarette smoke. The conclusion of the Milan study is that if someone smokes next to you on the street, the damage could be greater than that caused by the exhaust pipe of a car that passes near you. Hence the proposal to create non-smoking spaces also outdoors (already existing in some countries). There is also a suggestion to ban cigarettes on beaches, but in this case, the problem is the pollution caused by cigarette butts.

“As already demonstrated — continues the Codacons — by scientific studies in the field since the discovery made by an American study in 1997, and in particular also by the Codacons with a public experiment last May 31st …” But the “American discovery”, too, is nowhere to be found, and the “public experiment” devised by Rienzi, held in the inner courtyard of the Ministry of Health in Rome in the presence of some journalists, is ridiculous: a pollution detector at work first in the open air, then inside a car with the windows closed while a woman smokes a cigarette. This enigmatic experiment allegedly proves that a cigarette pollutes more than of the exhaust gas of an automobile …

“Cigarettes send micro-dust out into the environment that penetrates deep into the respiratory tract — explains the Codacons —. A smoker who consumes 15 cigarettes a day pollutes more than a car. We have served notice on the City of Rome, asking to implement a prohibition on smoking in its territory whenever the daily air pollution thresholds are exceeded.” But enforcing this ban, which should take the place of “alternating number plates”, would be an endless source of jokes, because the “polluting” cigarettes would be both those smoked outdoors and also those smoked indoors in private homes (smoke is bound to leave through the windows). How in the world could the prohibition be enforced?

For the 6 euro registration fee in a class action which it knows will never take place, the Codacons is playing with an ambiguity, transforming passive smoke in open spaces into an atmospheric pollution problem, subjecting inattentive consumers to a misrepresentation with disconcerting imprudence and superficiality. There is even the social message with the inevitable children: “by signing up you will contribute to help the 'Mary Poppins Association' that provides care and support to children suffering from cancer at the Policlinico Umberto I in Rome” …

Previous Blunders of the Codacons

In February last year, the Codacons initiated a class action against British American Tobacco, claiming that the company used chemical cocktails in its cigarettes to enhance the effects of nicotine addiction; three and a half million smokers of MS and Lucky Strike cigarettes would have collected € 3,000 each (for a total of 10.5 billion euro), but the Civil Court of Rome (as was obvious from the start) declared the suit inadmissible. It remains a mystery why the Codacons on this occasion “declared war” only against BAT and did not involve the other two tobacco giants on the Italian market, Philip Morris and Japan Tobacco with their popular Marlboros and Camels. Maybe Lucky Strikes are worse?

This summer we also witnessed a Codacons foul up involving “Pueblo tobacco”, the fine-cut shag most used today by cigarette makers. Pueblo was accused of containing tobacco treated during cultivation with a series of “notorious” pesticides. “Pueblo” is a tobacco that claims to be “100% natural”, that is, no additives are used in the production of the cigarettes or the shag; the tobacco is grown with agrochemicals (pesticides) permitted by the law. Rienzi, pretending to confuse “100% natural” tobacco with biological or “organic” tobacco, which is grown exclusively with alternative 'organic' products, thought he could slow down “Pueblo”, coincidentally on the eve of the arrival on the market of the shag for Diana, Winston, Chesterfield, Camel and Marlboro cigarettes.

But the masterpiece of “nonsense” of the Codacons was when it sided, “to protect the health of the Italians”, alongside the tobacco multinationals against the European Union and Yesmoke in the lawsuit for the abolition of Italy’s minimum price of cigarettes (which was finally abolished thanks to Yesmoke’s tenacity). Meanwhile the ADOC – Association for the Defence and Guidance of Consumers – maintained that the minimum price was “a law that hides, behind a health claim, the desire to strike consumers”.

Rienzi had even tried to alarm the public with catastrophic and idiotic predictions on the consequences of the abolition of the minimum price; these were promptly taken up by news agencies: “This means that from now on cigarettes in Italy can be sold even for one euro a pack — declared Rienzi — with unimaginable effects on human health considering that smoking causes 80 thousand deaths every year in our country”. “Human Health” aside, a pack of cigarettes is already weighed down with more than 3 euro in taxes; the price of one euro implies the abolition of taxes!

The “Mystery” of the Codacons' Logo

A bird standing above 3 three-leaf clovers, this is the logo of the Codacons. What does it mean? We asked the Codacons but received no answer. Yet a logo, particularly of an association, should relay a message that everyone can understand, not one hidden in enigmatic “Egyptian hieroglyphics”.

The logo of UNICEF, for example, portrays a woman holding a baby, with the world in the background, all encircled by two laurel branches, the symbol of peace. Emergency has a stylized red “E” on a white background that seems to exclaim, “Emergency!”; the symbol of the WWF is a panda, an animal facing extinction and thus in need of help, while that of the FAO is an ear of corn with the wish “Fiat panis”.

Learn More

• Italia sotto smog? Clamorosa azione collettiva del Codacons! – www.codacons.it
• Salute: Codacons, sigarette inquinano più di gas di scarico – www.codacons.it
• Targhe alterne inutili, per il Codacons è meglio vietare di fumare sigarette – Mediaset-TGCOM24 – 18 gennaio 2013
• Il fumatore inquina più dell’automobile? Il Codacons chiede stop alle targhe alterne e divieto di fumo nella capitale – onlineNews.it – 13 gennaio 2013
• Il fumo del tabacco inquina più di un auto – infoOGGI.it – 1 maggio 2012
• Fumo: test Codacons, sigaretta inquina di più di gas auto – ANSA.IT – 31 maggio 2012 
• Svolta nelle sigarette: un pacchetto anche a 1 euro – ilsalvagente.it – 7 aprile 2012
• Minimum price of cigarettes
• Tobacco shag: 100% natural, or organic?
• Italy: BAT beats the Codacons 2 to 0
• Atmosfera.enea.it

Codacons: “Ban Cigarettes in the City, They Pollute More Than Car”

Two years later, 67 workers of the former tobacco factory, now employees of the Korus Company (belonging to the PDL Senator Filippo Piccone), which was supposed to take over BAT’s factory, are without pay and apparently forgotten. They had to start up a BLOG to tell their story.

Meanwhile, those who had supported this “riconversione da manual” have continued shamelessly to serve the interests of the tobacco multinationals on other fronts. Today no one is concerned about the despicable way the workers were treated: thousands lost their jobs as the multinationals shifted their entire cigarette production out of the country. The only thing that concerns Italy today is the risk that the European Commission could introduce the plain cigarette pack, without Big Tobacco’s logos, and eliminate the 10-cigarette half-pack and the “slims”.

So, an array of foundations, politicians, journalists and professors has already lined up compactly in defense of the corporate brands with a stream of initiatives; BAT has become the official sponsor of high-class conventions, conferences and round tables, all full of reporters and photographers.

For example, there is the Magna Carta Foundation of the center-right PDL Senator Gaetano Quagliarello; it is officially sponsored by BAT and it includes both Senator Piccone, owner of Korus, and the former director of BAT Francesco Valli. The foundation is is doing nothing today to help the workers of Lecce, but it is fiercely defending the packs with the manufacturers’ logos, the 10-cigarette pack and the “slims”.

Even the Sole24Ore newspaper and the national mass media do not seem to be interested in the conversion of the factory in Lecce. On the contrary, the newspaper headlines that the no-logo pack “puts 200,000 jobs at risk”. Those who wrote yesterday that Big Tobacco has the right to transfer its production wherever it wants, now pretend to be concerned about the damage that the plain package would do to the production chain and to employment.

Could Yesmoke Save the Lecce Factory?

Two years ago, Yesmoke, along with some foreign investors, turned to the mayor of Lecce Paolo Perrone (PDL party) offering to take over the cigarette factory in Lecce and its production, but the mayor did not even listen. The 67 former BAT workers in their blog question if Yesmoke could really have saved the plant.

2011: demonstration of the BAT workers

The answer is yes: it would have been possible. Not so much for Yesmoke, that at the time had just started a positive trend in exports and was producing only modest quantities, but certainly for the foreign investors. A technologically advanced factory like the one in Lecce, “turnkey”, would have been a rare opportunity not to be ignored. It is no coincidence that BAT, as soon as it could, totally dismantled the plant so that no potential competitor could use it.

Today, foreign investors would no longer be necessary. After winning its lawsuit against the Italian State and having first the “minimum price” and then the "minimum tax” abolished ( laws that had closed the Italian market to national producers’ benefiting the cartel of 3 multinationals), Yesmoke began to grow in Italy and soon it was not able to satisfy all the orders it received. This year, 2013, the company in Settimo Torinese, thanks to the new G.D and Garbuio machinery just recently ordered (the same equipment used in Lecce), will double its manufacturing capacity and produce more than 10 billion cigarettes; it will reach the same capacity that BAT’s factory had in Lecce.

Unfortunately, in Lecce the needs of the territory and of the community did not prevail over on the interests and the profits of the three tobacco multinationals, companies that have always found in Italy an army of boot-lickers ready to bend over backwards to serve them, while those who should take care of the workers are nowhere to be found.

Learn More

• www.ipkoruslecce.tk – BLOG ex BAT workers
• Una riconversione da manuale – IlSole24Ore – March 7, 2011
• Tabacco, il proibizionismo Ue mette a rischio 200mila occupati e le entrate fiscali – IlSole24Ore – June 13, 2012
• The no-logo pack, a show of italia cronyism
• Italy: Big Tobacco down, Yesmoke up
• Taxes & Prices – Yesmoke breaks the system
• Big Tobacco cartel in Italy

Lecce: “A Textbook Conversion” No Longer of Interest to Anyone