This VT legislation not only would ban the purchase, sales and delivery of e-cigarettes via the Internet, phone and mail order, but the punishment is a 5 year jail term, a $5,000 criminal penalty, and a $5,000 civil penalty for each purchase, sale or delivery of e-cigarettes.
(b) No person shall cause cigarettes, roll-your-own tobacco, little cigars, snuff, or tobacco substitutes ordered or purchased by mail or through a computer network, telephonic network, or other electronic network, to be shipped to anyone other than a licensed wholesale dealer, distributor, or retail dealer in this state.
(c) No person shall, with knowledge or reason to know of the violation, provide substantial assistance to a person in violation of this section.
(d) A violation of this section shall be punishable as follows:
(1) A knowing or intentional violation of this section shall be punishable by imprisonment for not more than five years or a fine of not more than $5,000, or both.
(2) In addition to or in lieu of any other civil or criminal remedy provided by law, upon a determination that a person has violated this section, the attorney general may impose a civil penalty in an amount not to exceed $5,000.00 for each violation. For purposes of this subsection, each shipment or transport of cigarettes, roll-your-own tobacco, little cigars, or tobacco substitutes shall constitute a separate violation.
Don't know when VT enacted this law (that currently applies to cigarettes, RYO, little cigars and snuff), but I've been informed that Massachusetts, Maryland and Iowa have already enacted similar laws (and the bill in AZ that would ban e-cig sales to minors includes a similar provision for various tobacco products, but not e-cigarettes).
These bills/laws (to ban internet and mail order sales of cigarettes and certain other tobacco products) appear to be (and/or have been) drafted and lobbied for by State AGs in collaboration with large tobacco companies (which is also why they include RYO and little cigars, which large cigarette companies also consider their competition).
The three largest cigarette companies (Altria, Reynolds, Lorillard) in the US (that have more than 90% market share) have lobbied state laws/bills that are intended to reduce sales of untaxed cigarettes sold by native tribes and others via the internet, as well as cigarettes sold by Non Participating Manufacturers (who didn't participate in the 1998 MSA).
Unfortunately, while the overwhelming majority of cigarettes, snuff, RYO and little cigars are retailed via brick and mortar stores that have tobacco wholesale and/or retail licenses, a far greater percentage of e-cigarette products are marketed via the internet or mail order.
I strongly suspect that Vermont AG William Sorrell
http://www.atg.state.vt.us/
is behind this legislation, as he's been the most active State AG working with the National Association of Attorneys General (NAAG) in enforcing the 1998 Master Settlement Agreement (MSA), and in going after tobacco companies (e.g. Sorrell sued RJ Reynolds for selling several hundred dollars of Eclipse heated tobacco products in VT).
State AG's (with endorsement and sometimes active support of large cigarette companies) are almost always behind state legislation that includes provisions dealing with the MSA, and both the VT and AZ bills would amend their state statutes to further extort money from Non Participating Manufacturers.
