Copied from a snuson post: How is this going to effect you and us snuffers? Snussers? tobacco chewers? pipe smokers? Dippers?
Not sure what this is about really, the revision of the tobacco products directive has not yet been made. Not sure if EU has found a way to lean on cross border retailers of tobacco or if this is some move northerner is making to be compliant in advance of new directives. The review was proposing a ban on cross border sales as part of the revisions.
I bet it will cost me money one way or the other though. Or like they want it, I won’t be able to get what I want.
So far as I can tell, this is just Northerner at the moment.
Long story short; probably best not to mail tobacco to Finland. This from Larry Waters. "BREAKING: The phones began ringing late last night in Sweden. The Swedish snus eStore owned by World Wide Snus AB has been shut down by order of the EU and its assets seized. Details and confirmations are still very hard to track down, even for our SnusCIA. This was all timed to occur after close of business on Friday in Sweden. At the time of this writing, we’re told a cancer organization in Finland filed suit against the Swedish snus store for allegedly selling snus to customers in Finland. This cancer organization apparently won the suit. It is unclear at this time whether Swedish, Finish, or EU officials executed the seizure. The company website has been locked down; displaying only the message “Maintenance - SnusWorldWide.com will be back online Tuesday, 29th March 2011. We have been unable to reach management for a comment as of yet.”
The Northener states those of us in the EU can only order from the US now. I’ve heard something like this before…
Isn’t that crazy? The Americans are ordering American snuff from the EU and EU residents are ordering EU manufactured snus from the Americans.
@Nachman - law of unintended consequences! Read between the lines I guess. All I know is that I have been hoarding snus and snuff since 2009. I can still get both here, at substantially increased costs, but something like this just reverberates. I still remember one of my American friends disregarding the PACT act as not possible due to the fact it was not logical. Yea right!
What I’m reading between the lines from Khalid’s re-post is some Finnish-Swedish rivalry. There are a lot of ethnic Swedes in Finland who want snus and I think there is some degree of nationalism they are expressing with that, and the Finns are trying to repress, or at least keep Swedish culture from penetrating any further in their country. So I think what I mean is that there is more than just anti-tobacconism in this.
@Xander Finland has some specific tobacco import and export legislation, over and above E.U legislation. They do also seem to have a very robust anti-tobacco lobby as well as a govt monopoly on tobacco sales. I guess sticking it to the Swedes may also have it’s attractions.
This is insane.
I haven’t found anything about this in the Finnish media. But I’m pretty sure there’s no national rivarly or similar hidden in this. I checked the law pertaining to snus and it seems that importing snus to Finland thru mail, even for even personal use, has been banned since Oct 2010. Business imports and sales have been against the law for much longer. One is allowed to bring 1,5 kg (30 x 50gr) per person when travelling from abroad (Sweden), though. I’m guessing that this company might have mailed snus into Finland despite this law. The antis here are pretty vocal and are spewing shit profously for their salary like their brethren everywhere. Lying about research and studies is their basic m.o. The Finnish law doesn’t obviously apply to Swedes in Sweden, but EU directives do when twisted around lobbied enough. I’m not a snuser, but naturally feel bad about this. No cheers.
Things are going exactly as I predicted. We’re heading towards a complete ban on tobacco. Mark my words. Get hoarding snuff now whilst you can.
@Oscarwabbit - Way ahead of you! Although lately you have been catching up rather rapidly.
It has been illegal to export snus between the EU countries for many years. Sweden was even asked to ban snus, but negotiated a deal in 1995 when they joined EU, that they could keep their snus. Now nobody takes this seriously, and I have as a Danish citizen and resident of Denmark bought tons of snus in Sweden - both online and real time. The big problems is that there really isn’t any carrot in researching tobacco use scientifically because as someone said above, the agenda is to ban all tobacco, and have us all using chewing gum, chemical inhalers, chemical patches, or we may be shoveling junk food and candy instead. Oh those tobacco haters are so INSPIRING in their thirsting for us to live healthy! PLEASE PLEASE come regulate my A** too please! Anyway thank God this stupid law does *not* apply to nasal snuff, which is perfectly legal to buy from other EU countries and have sent to your home address.
Looks like this is just a Snus thing and the Swedish customs are under pressure to enforce the ban on snus export to the E.U. after Finland petitioned the E.U and highlighted that Swedish customs had been turning a blind eye. This has no impact on snuff sales.
“This has no impact on snuff sales.” Absolutely, affects only snus. And as Viking rightly pointed out snus exports in the EU have been illegal for many years now. Shouldn’t affect any other form of tobacco. Nothing really has changed. But do panic, if you will.
i think in the long run, northerner will just expand their stock in the us and allow eu customers to buy from their like they do already with some snus and chew etc.
I imagine that new online snus retailers will set up outside the EU to service the EU market. I am guessing Russia. It will take a while for Northerner US to expand the range of stock, given the need for manufacturers to register products with the FDA.
To be more exact, the Swedes export tons of loose snus to Denmark, which is still legal to do. But PORTION snus - the stuff I want - illegal to buy. I’m not sure how the rules are when it comes to e-trade, but it’s most probably the same. Ha ha yeah I just panicked and ordered one pound of Princes, and some Morlaix immediately - erhm - just to be on the safe side, when the SNOT TEAM kicks in my door at night to carry off my snuff box in triumph as “evidence” of my criminal tendencies.