Danish pipe shop no longer shipping blends international
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Internet based tobacco sellers are and will increasingly be under attack. Not sure of the timing but internet selling of regulated objects like tobacco, liquor, drugs, and guns will have increasingly onerous regulation, to the point of destroying the industry. Just my 2 cents.
An email from The Danish Pipe Shop:
Hi Dan,
We can't do it as a company. Basically you can order from the States, pay with any card and get it delivered to a friend in Denmark. That's the only way.
First of all its important to stress that we still send all non-tobacco products worldwide.
Yes we would love to have warned but that would have given us more fire under our feet's than we already have
Reality is that it's not legal for us to send tobacco with Danish warnings to most countries. There are rules within EU about this. We have until now said that we send what the customers buy and then they must handle eventual problems. Credit card providers then say this can't be done. We have to take liability and we have to make sure that every product we send apply local rules. We are 2-3 people working and ship to 50 countries and btw USA has one law plus 52 state laws. So the task is too big for us. Latest development is that My Own Blend threatened us with exclusion as a dealer if we exported their blends. An American authority tried to close down our website through our web service provider because one potentially could buy tobacco by us and we do not have a permit in that specific state...
So with all this in mind you have to know that we have a 8-12% profit on tobacco so basically it's not a profit earning business that create a lot of trouble
But it was a hard decision and we are naturally nervous for what consequences it might have for our business.
I don't know if you read my blog about but that explains the situation as well. https://www.danishpipeshop.com/n/No-tobacco-outside-Denmark-i7825.html
Med venlig hilsen/Kind Regards,
The Danish Pipe Shop Aps.
Vester Voldgade 92
1552 Copenhagen V
Phone: +4533123651
Hi Dan,
We can't do it as a company. Basically you can order from the States, pay with any card and get it delivered to a friend in Denmark. That's the only way.
First of all its important to stress that we still send all non-tobacco products worldwide.
Yes we would love to have warned but that would have given us more fire under our feet's than we already have
Reality is that it's not legal for us to send tobacco with Danish warnings to most countries. There are rules within EU about this. We have until now said that we send what the customers buy and then they must handle eventual problems. Credit card providers then say this can't be done. We have to take liability and we have to make sure that every product we send apply local rules. We are 2-3 people working and ship to 50 countries and btw USA has one law plus 52 state laws. So the task is too big for us. Latest development is that My Own Blend threatened us with exclusion as a dealer if we exported their blends. An American authority tried to close down our website through our web service provider because one potentially could buy tobacco by us and we do not have a permit in that specific state...
So with all this in mind you have to know that we have a 8-12% profit on tobacco so basically it's not a profit earning business that create a lot of trouble
But it was a hard decision and we are naturally nervous for what consequences it might have for our business.
I don't know if you read my blog about but that explains the situation as well. https://www.danishpipeshop.com/n/No-tobacco-outside-Denmark-i7825.html
Med venlig hilsen/Kind Regards,
The Danish Pipe Shop Aps.
Vester Voldgade 92
1552 Copenhagen V
Phone: +4533123651
I have sometimes felt that I missed the days when things from overseas were hard-to-get, rare, and special. I guess those times are again upon us, but for new reasons.
I hate reading news like this it just gives me a horrible feeling that the time when Internet sales of tobacco products is stopped both internationally and even worse domestically, whether it be the credit card companies or the government sooner or later (and sadly it might be a lot nearer than I'd like) you won't be able to buy online with all the choice that provides, it's at times like this I wish I didn't prefer to have a 15-20 tobacco rotation with lots of variety and was just happy sticking to a single readily available blend like Condor or St Bruno. One good thing that might come out of all this regulation and forbidden on line sales is the Bricks & mortar shops might see something of a resurgence and they might be a bit more of common site in towns & cities like it was some years ago.
Chris.
Chris.
It sounds like we all might have to get a whole lot better at networking and shipping to pipe friends back and forth across the Atlantic...and maybe even across the US. It will be a lot less convenient if that comes to pass :-(
FWIW, I ordered from Esterval’s a week ago with no problem and a told a friend who got an order in with them yesterday.
FWIW, I ordered from Esterval’s a week ago with no problem and a told a friend who got an order in with them yesterday.
I seriously doubt it. B&M's are under attack as well from ever more onerous regulation, and as businesses with a physical storefront they are an easier target. Just take a look at the latest Canadian anti-tobacco BS, courtesy of the liberal gov't and their supporting interest groups: tobacco plain packaging; please read the news story linked to in my first post, which includes the local tobacconist's concern that with Canada being such a small market, many producers won't bother or be able to afford producing special packaging for a single market. You can see something there akin to European governments complaining about tins with Danish (foreign) labels.
There are also worldwide organisations/power groups, notable among them the World Health Organization [sic] with its infamous Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, which are trying to shut down not just tobacco consumption but also production by
The same malignant WHO is also responsible for the issue we're discussing here: see their Protocol to Elliminate Illicit Trade in Tobacco Products:
Sure, the document reads 'illicit', which is misleading as it makes people think of rugged, mean, criminalistic smugglers; but with tobacco continuously being vilified, over-regulated, and banned, it's not difficult for a thinking person to see that they already consider any kind of tobacco illicit, even before it's declared so.
At length, the whole thing is heading into prohibition. Even if they remember what happened when they tried to ban alcohol, the governments and power groups feel now more cocky due to the ease to track purchases and purchasers by means of digital means that didn't exist 100 years ago, when they banned alcohol. Digital tracks paired with ever more sophisticated means of panopticon-like surveilance (drones, street cameras, nosy neighbours 'doing their civic duty' by ratting you out, &c.) give those in power the confidence that they will have little trouble in enforcing prohibition.
Yeah you are probably right it was more a hope than anything else but the reality seems to be there are a number of people/organisations that it doesn't seem like will be happy until we have a tobacco free world 'shudder' and are day after day bit by bit getting closer to that goal. Some countries are worse than others of course and I thought we had it bad in England then I saw what Australia and I believe Canada have to put up with and realised things could always be worse.
Chris.
Chris.
DUH! See, it blows my mind that all smokers don't fully realize this. The majority of the world is not rooting for tobacco. They hate the way we smell, the way we look, the way we are lazy, and waste time, and money, and make everyone sick.
Well,in reality, if they(DPS) liked to continue serving the U.S & continental European customers and provide them with tobacco products,they coulda been void credit card payments and only accepting money transfer to their bank accounts,as I mentioned previously,there is a number of smaller scale tobacconists in Germany and southern European countries who do take PayPal nor Credit card payments.
Smudgersmissingleg: To Your knowledge,apart from Denmark, the situation with tobacco products and sales in all the remaining Scandinavian countries equals to situation what we are seeing in Canada, So, in my opinion, England in this regard is not the worst place in the earth,
Read the link Peck provided. It wasn't just credit card companies. It was ongoing issues having the tobacco seized, sent back, etc. that heavily contributed to the decision. In fact, that seems to be more of an issue that credit cards.
Paul, No I don't for one moment think England is the worse, I thought we had it bad regarding the price of tobacco then I saw some of the other countries had even more draconian taxes and rules, still can't help wishing we had the choices and the prices of the US though, luckily although we don't have the same massive choice it's still not too bad and we do have some high class plugs, twists and flakes from which to choose so I try and look on the bright side it's just news like this makes me wish I had a much bigger cellar.
Chris
Chris
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