Unfair Cigarette Sales Act

The Unfair Cigarette Sales Act is a below-cost pricing law for cigarettes: it bars retailers, wholesalers, and distributors from advertising, offering, or selling cigarettes below cost, and supplies statutory definitions of "cost to the retailer" and "cost to the wholesaler" as the yardsticks for measuring a violation. Companion provisions address the ways below-cost pricing can be disguised or excused — combination offers involving two or more items, wholesaler-to-wholesaler sales, purchases made outside ordinary trade channels, and good-faith sales to meet a competitor's price — along with the treatment of contracts made in violation of the act and how cost is proven, including the use of cost surveys as evidence. Enforcement combines court actions to enjoin violations and recover damages with administrative sanctions against a seller's license, including suspension or revocation subject to review, supported by rulemaking authority.

Editorial summary generated from the text of this act. It is not part of the statute — read the sections below for the operative language.