SS/SCS/SB 884 - This act requires all tobacco manufacturers whose cigarettes are sold in Missouri to report and certify to the Department of Revenue and the Attorney General's office by April 30 of each year that they are in compliance with the Tobacco Settlement Model Statute currently in Missouri law. In addition to the certification, manufacturers must also provide a list of "brand families". Non-participating manufacturers must provide the number of units sold for each family for the preceding year, the name and address of any other manufacturer of their brand families in the preceding or current calendar year, and other information to verify compliance with the model statute in their certification. All manufacturers must update their lists thirty days prior to any addition to or modification of its brand families through a supplemental certification to the director of the Department of Revenue. In addition to other certification requirements, each non-participating manufacturer must be registered to do business in the state or maintain an agent within the state for the purpose of service of process relating to the enforcement of the act. By January 1, 2011, the Director of the Department of Revenue must make available for public inspection or publish on the department's website a list of all tobacco product manufacturers that have satisfied the certification requirements established in the act. The directory may be updated on the first calendar day of each month if necessary. Upon first publication of the directory and following any updates to the directory, the act allows tobacco wholesalers and retailers to sell their inventory of cigarettes of manufacturers which have been not been included the directory for specified periods without penalty.
The Director of the Department of Revenue and the Attorney General are allowed to share information on tobacco sales in the state to implement and enforce the provisions of the act.
Stamping agents (persons authorized to affix cigarette tax stamps to cigarette packages) are required to submit to the director an e-mail address for the receipt of notifications as required by the bill and to submit various reports and documents as required by the department.
The act provides that any cigarettes that have been deemed by a court of competent jurisdiction to have been sold, offered for sale, or possessed for sale in violation of the act will be deemed contraband and subject to seizure, forfeiture, and destruction. In any successful action brought by the state under the act, the state may be entitled to recover the costs of investigation and action including reasonable attorney fees. The amendment subjects determinations not to list, or to remove from, the directory a brand family or tobacco product manufacturer to review by a court of competent jurisdiction.
Various penalties and actions for failure to comply with the requirements of the act are included.
The act contains an emergency clause.
This act is similar to the Senate Committee Substitute for Senate Bill 242 (2007).
JASON ZAMKUS