Now wait just a cotton-pickin' minute. Section 2.xiii does read
is associated with electronic cigarettes (i.e., "e-cigarettes") or any similar product; or
But what is the justification? Some other processors refuse to process the sales of any and all tobacco products, and I was wondering whether this was a case of mistaken identify (i.e., they believe e-cigarettes are a tobacco product.) For the record, e-cigarettes contain no tobacco, and currently are NOT regulated under the Tobacco Act. If the FDA issues a deeming regulation, and that regulation goes into effect, then they might have an excuse to lump e-cigs in with tobacco products.
So I went looking for "tobacco products" in their list of prohibited products, and found this:
2.i is unlawful or violates any applicable local, state, federal, national or international law, statute, ordinance, or regulation including, without limitation, Credit Card Association rules, consumer protection law, Internet tobacco sales, unfair competition, antidiscrimination or false advertising;
Now I happen to know it isn't totally illegal to sell tobacco products over the internet, so I looked up the laws and found that the only Federal law that applies to (some) tobacco products is the PACT act. Even that doesn't prohibit sales. It prohibits them from being delivered via the US Postal Service (which is a questionable provision, since the US Postal Service is not truly a government agency... so Uncle Sam is discriminating against USPS in favor of other carriers.) It also requires age verification. But the most important provision is that it requires each vendor to collect the applicable state tobacco taxes and pay them to the state where the products are delivered. HOWEVER, Cigarettes, roll-your-own tobacco, and smokeless tobacco are covered. Cigars are excluded.
So E-cigarettes are NOT included in the PACT act and will not be automatically included even if the FDA issues a deeming regulation.
This means that Authorize.net does not prohibit sales of tobacco products--it merely demands that all laws governing such sales are obeyed.
I suspect that someone has been feeding Authorize.net a line of bull-scat.
Recall that there was an attorney whose name I refuse to type in here because the man is a freaking publicity hog, who notified Pay Pal that e-cigarettes are an illegal product that the FDA was going to ban as an unapproved drug-drug delivery device. This took place before the court case was decided that ordered the FDA to stop confiscating incoming shipments, told them they could not regulate the products as drugs and suggested that if they wish to regulate them, they should do so under the Tobacco Act.
As mentioned above, e-cigarettes were not one of the tobacco products specified in the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act, but the Act does permit the Secretary (of Health and Human Services) to issue a deeming regulation to include other products to be regulated under the Act.
Bottom line: Authorize.net probably does not realize that they are being USED to prevent people from using an effective method to stop smoking. Authorize.net is being duped into preventing the lives of smokers from being saved.
i doubt they just gonna ask what do you sell and carry on
