We support
We Card® , a training and education program from the Coalition for Responsible Tobacco Retailing.
We Card provides retailers with tools and resources to help prevent underage tobacco sales, including training seminars, interactive online training, in-store signage and educational resources such as age verification calendars, tip sheets on how to spot fake IDs, and retailer knowledge tests.
From 1995, when the
We Card program launched, through 2009, it has:
- sponsored nearly 2,200 live training seminars – including custom manager-level training programs for retail chains – where more than 103,000 retail staff were trained;
- distributed more than 1.1 million We Card training and resource kits to retailers nationwide;
- developed state-of-the-art online and CD-ROM training formats that enable retailers to train employees more efficiently; and
- conducted over 140,000 online trainings since 2002.
The
We Card website provides practical and downloadable information, tips, training, and materials that help retailers reduce tobacco sales to minors.
Wholesale Trade Programs
We work with wholesalers to help their retail clients responsibly merchandise tobacco products. Under our Wholesale Leaders program, wholesalers provide their employees with
We Card training, distribute
We Card order forms to new stores, include the
We Card logo and contact information on all tobacco product invoices, and certify their compliance with these measures. The program also requires participating wholesalers who engage in remote cigarettes sales (including sales over internet or by telephone, fax, or mail order) to take steps to verify compliance with applicable minimum-age requirements.
Retail Trade Programs
We offer Retail Leaders to all retailers that our sales force visits on a regular basis. Retail Leaders offers incentives to retailers to, among other things, merchandise and sell tobacco products in a responsible manner. Elements of Retail Leaders include, but are not limited to:
- requiring retail signage that tells adults not to buy tobacco products for kids;
- requiring retailer training;
- placing and maintaining We Card or equivalent signage;
- using an age verification tool; and
- merchandising all cigarettes in a non-self-service environment.
About 86 percent of stores that are visited regularly by our field sales force participate in the Retail Leaders program.
Read More about PM USA's Retail Leaders program.
In 1996 PM USA implemented a policy to help address the issue of illegal cigarette sales to underage purchasers by imposing its own penalties on retailers who sold tobacco products to minors in addition to those imposed by states and localities. In January 2008, the policy was broadened to include all tobacco products.
Under this policy we obtain information from appropriate state entities identifying retailers that have been convicted, penalized, or otherwise identified by a state agency, for having sold tobacco in violation of state or local minimum age requirements. PM USA then suspends merchandising and promotional payments to those retail stores. Suspension periods range from a period of one month to one year depending on the frequency of such violations.
As of December 2009, PM USA was obtaining information from 25 states and one major city. In accordance with the policy, PM USA imposed almost 4,000 penalties in 2009.
Since 2001, we have provided retailers with signs that tell adults not to buy cigarettes for minors. In 2007 we broadened the message of these signs to remind adults not to purchase any tobacco product for minors. As of December 2009, 93% of stores called on by our sales force displayed the social access signs.
Federal Legislation
In June 2009, Congress enacted sweeping legislation that provides the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) with broad authority over tobacco products. This new federal legislation requires the FDA to issue a variety of regulations designed to further prevent underage access to tobacco products. For example, certain regulations will:
- prohibit “self-service” displays of cigarettes and smokeless tobacco products, except in certain age-restricted facilities;
- establish a federal minimum age of 18 for the sale of cigarettes and smokeless tobacco products; and
- require retailers to obtain identification for any consumer under 27 years of age.
PM USA supported this legislation, and we will continue to evaluate our underage access prevention programs as these regulations are implemented.
State Legislation
At the state level, PM USA continues to support enactment of state underage access prevention legislation to complement FDA’s authority. Among other things, such state legislation would:
- require all tobacco product purchases to be clerk-assisted or conducted in an otherwise non-self-service environment to include the restriction of vending machine sales of tobacco products;
- prohibit anyone from purchasing tobacco products for, or distributing tobacco products to, a minor;
- prohibit the purchase or possession of tobacco products by minors or the use of false identification by a minor during an attempt to purchase tobacco products; and
- require minimum-age-to-purchase signage at retail stores and require valid proof-of-age for all tobacco product purchases.
In 2009, nine underage access prevention bills passed that were either identical or very similar to legislative provisions we support.
