Ban on Internet Sales?

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Fiamma

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In recent days we have seen Facebook start deleting e cig sellers pages here and there, perhaps as they are 'discovered', PayPal closing e cig vendors accounts, also perhaps as they are 'discovered', and now Authorize.net doing the same thing.

To 'my' current knowledge there is no federal law banning the internet sales of e cigarettes, only tobacco cigarettes.

Facebook is quoting their TOS as the reason, I don't do Facebook as I dislike their idea of privacy so I don't know if the e cig ban has always been there or not, nor do I know the same thing about Authorize.net's TOS. Was no ecig sales a recent addition?

Authorize.net is a subsidiary of Visa. How long will it be before the other credit card processors start amending their TOS?

When you look at the combined 3 actions it appears that law or no law someone has taken aim at an effective ban on e cig internet sales.

Added this to this current topic as I wasn't sure where to ask the question.

Comments?

//edit. For those who do not know, Authorize.net is a credit card processing company. How many ecig vendors online use Authorize.net? Are they ALL in danger of being shut off from doing business on the net?
 
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Racehorse

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The US government is corrupt

So are human beings.
So are Corporations.
etc. etc. etc.

The world is made up of all the people that give and take into it---it's all the parts that make a whole.

Start with yourself. That's my motto.

As gandhi said, be the change you want to see in the world. Pointing fingers doesn't help anything. Start a grass roots project, touch another person in a meaningful way today, help someone, be kind. Since the world is made up of each and every person in it, we each have a lot of power to change things for the better. Those who point are using up valuable energy when they could be using their fingers to help somebody. :)

and yes, support the causes in a meaningful way that mean something to you, action is a verb, typing is not the only kind of activism.
 

Racehorse

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Here is one of the bills he was talking about...
https://www.popvox.com/bills/us/112/s1403

Co-Sponsors
Sen. Richard Durbin [D, IL]
Sen. Tim Johnson [D, SD]
Sen. Frank Lautenberg [D, NJ]
Sen. Patrick Leahy [D, VT]
Sen. Barbara Mikulski [D, MD]
Sen. Patty Murray [D, WA]
Sen. John Reed [D, RI]
Sen. John Rockefeller [D, WV]
Sen. Amy Klobuchar [D, MN]
Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse [D, RI]
Sen. Jeanne Shaheen [D, NH]
Sen. Mark Begich [D, AK]
Sen. Michael Bennet [D, CO]
Sen. Al Franken [D, MN]
Sen. Richard Blumenthal [D, CT]

Very odd that there are no republicans listed all.....surely there must be some? :)

I do my research by going to actual bill summaries - can someone provide the exact S or HR number for this?
 
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Racehorse

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It is bill s1403
:)

Thanks DC2. I still find as many "No" Dems and non cosponsors.

I'm counting 35 Dems as "no" votes, and not co-sponsors, out of the 15 or so that you listed.

The repubs will sit quietly on the sidelines, I mean, I don't see anyone stepping up breaking their necks to advocate for us, do you?

At any rate, with such a dismal ratio, you have 15 or so votes......I hardly see this as a bill that is going to go anywhere anyway. I'll save my ammo for the big shootout.

However, I can't honestly say I don't want analog cigs to be taxed out of existence, to be honest, even though I DO support freedom. I've dragged my vaping stuff all over town, and was able to find *one* person who vapes. Everyone else didn't seem interested at all. I offered to lend stuff to them, just try it. I see so many youngsters (able bodied) around arkansas who use their foodstamps (for food) so they can spend ALL their acutal $$ on cigarettes. :)

I don't know how to stop that w/out hitting them in their pocketbooks.

BTW, I'm not dem or repub...I vote both ways and am registered independent so I have no allegiance to the 2 party system in general.
 
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Bill Godshall

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S1403 Bill Text - 112th Congress (2011-2012) - THOMAS (Library of Congress) isn't going to be passed by Congress, nor even the Senate this session. The lefty Democrats sponsoring the bill cannot even get enough votes from other Democrats to get the bill out of the Senate Finance Committee.

But if Obama is reelected, if the Dems take control of the House and keep control of the Senate (after November's election), its possible that the bill (or a modified variation of it) could be approved by the next Congress.

Regarding John Banzhaf at ASH, he retired in December, 2010.

Regarding Internet sales of e-cigarettes, there are currently no federal or state laws (in the US) that ban the internet sale of e-cigarettes.

Private companies, however, have the right to adopt policies that ban e-cigarette sales, advertisements or payments.

If the FDA proposes and then approves a "deeming" regulation (as Obama appointees at the agency have repeatedly stated their intent to do) to apply Chapter IX of the FSPTCA to e-cigarettes and other currently unregulated tobacco products, it is very likely that e-cigarettes sales via the internet and mail order would be banned. It is unlikely that Obama's FDA will formally propose the "deeming" regulation for e-cigarettes before November's election, but it is likely the agency will do so after the election if Obama is reelected.

If Romney wins the election, there is a very good chance that the FDA either won't propose the "deeming" regulation, and an even better chance that the FDA won't give "final approval" to the deeming regulation if it is proposed.
 

Berylanna

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:blush:
In recent days we have seen Facebook start deleting e cig sellers pages here and there, perhaps as they are 'discovered', PayPal closing e cig vendors accounts, also perhaps as they are 'discovered', and now Authorize.net doing the same thing.

I joined https://www.dwolla.com/ because GotVapes and Vapelicious both use this (openly!)

It is nowhere as good as Ebay in terms of size and services offered, but they don't charge the vendors a fee. They get their money from NOT doing transactions from your bank instantly I think, and basically keeping the interest from your "balance" that you keep in there to pay for things.

For me this is no big deal since I'm still in the money-spending stage:blush:

But I think there are ways to speed things up, I'm just too new to have figured it out.
 

Hulamoon

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Authorize.net, the gateway processor did the e-cig thing around Sep? Nov? 2010. A couple of vendors were hit fairly quickly and then changed processors, with another round getting hit and then changing processors in March 2011. After that, the instigator bonzo?, bonehead? bonzhof? or whatever his name is retired in 2010. I can only guess they have since dillied and dallied all the way till now because they saw the straight up spiraling of fee and service income and realised they shot themselves squarely in the a..... uh...I mean "foot". Yeah, that's it. "Foot". After all, if e-cigs can be advertised on TV and sold by Walmart, what the heck?! If they don't want the money be assured someone else will. :)

I read that before I posted. My question is does anyone know when E cigs were added?
 

Fiamma

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Thank you, Hulamoon.

One of the small but growing vendors I favor was hit by PayPal last month with account closure. Wondering now if any others I buy from use Authorize.net.

Really hurts both the buyer and the seller when these things happen.

Well I hope they enjoy their loss of revenues from processing fees and charges :D
 

Wolf308

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They're finding new ones. I work for a gun store, and many e-cig vendors I've met in person have asked for information about who we use for internet sales and even in store. Most of our business is in store, we don't do much online, but we're all lumped together as "high risk" dealers. Credit card companies will stop transactions, but they tend to let it go if you call them and tell them to run it through. But there are some processing companies out there to run credit cards through that will take on "high risk" shops, even online. The only issue that could really be a problem is the credit card companies themselves. But there's always someone out there willing to take your business.
 

Hulamoon

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:D I like your avitar MUCH better than the one it's based on. LOL

They're finding new ones. I work for a gun store, and many e-cig vendors I've met in person have asked for information about who we use for internet sales and even in store. Most of our business is in store, we don't do much online, but we're all lumped together as "high risk" dealers. Credit card companies will stop transactions, but they tend to let it go if you call them and tell them to run it through. But there are some processing companies out there to run credit cards through that will take on "high risk" shops, even online. The only issue that could really be a problem is the credit card companies themselves. But there's always someone out there willing to take your business.
 

Wolf308

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I think "high risk" gets put under various catagories. In my line of work, there is obvious credit card fraud that can happen anywhere on the net (and with our business, it could mean worse things than identity theft, and they don't take into consideration the shipping process, paperwork, and the license requirnments for shipping or that we discover credit card fraud well before they do or the person who had their card stolen, because these folks can never produce the required information to complete shipping legally), and they may let that carry over to e-cigs and their supplies. But you also have political climate and the vast difference between states (meaning you could be shipping to a state or country that doesn't allow your product, but how would you possibly know? But it could lead to sudden ending of contracts). You also have a higher probability of items that may arrive unsatisfactory to the buyer, therefore higher risk of return charges and less expected fees to the company. I'm not sure what else puts an e-cig vendor into that catagory, honestly. All I know is the ones we've forwarded info about the companies we use to tell us the companies list them as "high risk" in the same catagory as our business. So I can only assume along our lines.
 

The Duke

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Here is an example of what are “high risk”

We Accept High Risk Merchant Account in the Following Industry Types:
Online Dating
Adult
High Volume
Collection Agencies
Trial Offers
Continuity
Terminated Merchants (TMF)
Online Auctions
Travel/Time Shares
Pharmaceuticals
Nutraceuticals
Herbal Products
Medical .........
Multi-level Marketing
Tobacco/Cigarette
Gaming (online casions/games)
Web Hosting
Health and Wellness
Outbound Telemarketing
Ecigarettes - Ecigs

High Risk Merchant Account, Merchant Account Providers, Online Merchant Accounts, High Risk Merchant Processor
 
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