WTHR |States watch Supreme Court online cigarette case

States watch Supreme Court online cigarette case

Tom Walker/Eyewitness News

When it comes to restricting cigarette sales in cyberspace, authorities often find their attempts thwarted. Now the US Supreme Court may change one way states like Indiana have tried to fight back.

With hundreds of websites now offering tobacco products online, states don't want to see their ability to regulate online sales of cigarettes to kids snuffed out.

At issue before the Supreme Court is a Maine law requiring delivery companies verify that the cigarettes are not left in the hands of someone underage. Indiana has a similar law.

"All we're asking them to do is to make sure that they're not delivering tobacco products cigarettes to kids at the door. We know they can do it; they know they can do it," said Steven Rowe, Maine attorney general.

Just as deliveries of alcohol ordered online have been controversial in the past, so is the sale of cigarettes to minors. Shippers including Fed Ex and UPS are challenging Maine's law, saying they shouldn't have to serve as age police on millions of packages to states with differing laws.

"To be able to deliver the packages that everyone in this economy and society has come to expect by the timely delivery guarantee," said Beth Brinkmann, shippers' attorney.

This story is not just about kids and cigarettes. It's also about what states are losing in tax dollars. Depending on how the court rules, states are afraid their ability to collect state taxes due on online cigarette sales could also go up in smoke. It's estimated states lose $1.4 billion a year in tobacco taxes on internet sales.