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Thread: no-cigs.com

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    VIP Member CzarJunkie's Avatar
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    Default no-cigs.com

    Thursday, 23 November 2006, 09:57 GMT

    EU blocks low-duty alcohol online

    The "booze cruise" tradition goes on
    The European Court of Justice has ruled against allowing consumers to buy drinks and cigarettes online at lower duties from other countries.
    The decision means shoppers buying cheaper goods abroad will still have to accompany the goods back themselves.

    A different ruling allowing an internet bargain hunt would have hit thousands of UK retailers and could have spelled the end for the "booze cruise".

    The decision has come as a relief to the Treasury and ferry firms.

    "This clear win for the government is a victory for commonsense," said a Treasury source.

    The UK government already loses duty of more than £1bn (1.5bn euros) per year because of so-called "booze cruises", and would have stood to lose a lot more.




    Q&A: Buying from low-duty countries

    The ruling will disappoint shoppers hoping to stock up on alcohol and cigarettes for Christmas but it has cheered retailers.

    Ken Patel, national spokesman for Retailers Against Smuggling, and a Leicester retailer, said it was a critical decision for corner shops.

    "Tobacco accounts for a huge proportion of the sales of many corner shopkeepers and to have lost these valuable sales plus the add-on purchases a shopper often makes at the same time - like a daily paper or a pint of milk - would have been unsustainable for many retailers," he said.

    The European Court of Justice (ECJ) judges ruled that "only products acquired and transported personally by private individuals are exempt from excise duty in the member state of importation".

    The case was brought by a Dutch wine club who objected to being charged duty on a lorry-load of wine delivered from France.

    Armchair shopping

    The Dutch Supreme Court had asked the European Court to interpret its own directive, which said: "As regards products acquired by private individuals for their own use and transported by them... excise duty shall be charged in the member state in which they are acquired."

    If the Dutch case had been considered lawful it would have been disastrous for the health of Britons and other Europeans

    Deborah Arnott
    ASH

    An interim ruling from the court last year suggested it would be possible for shoppers to order goods from their armchair and have them delivered to their door as long as the goods were for personal consumption and transported themselves.

    The UK had stood to lose more than most countries by a change in the law, whereas a country like France would have benefited from the extra business.

    But this may be a short term reprieve for the UK Treasury because planned draft legislation could reverse this decision in the future.

    Deborah Arnott, director of the health campaigning charity ASH, said: "Thankfully the ECJ has taken into account the broader health and economic implications of this case.

    "If the Dutch case had been considered lawful it would have been disastrous for the health of Britons and other Europeans living in countries where tobacco taxes are high."

    A P&O Ferries spokeswoman said the company had been ready to adapt its business to a change in the law, but would now carry on as normal.

    Duty on a bottle of wine varies from nothing in 13 EU countries, to 2.1 euros per 75cl in Ireland.
    http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/6175646.stm

  2. #2
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    Default Re: no-cigs.com

    I thought it was too good to be true when I first heard that booze and tobacco could be bought "duty-free" online.

    CJ, you don't smoke or drink how do you feel about this?

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    Default Re: no-cigs.com

    Here is a link to the proper ruling!

    http://curia.europa.eu/jurisp/cgi-bin/form.pl?lang=EN&Submit=Rechercher$docrequire=alldocs&numaff=C-5/05&datefs=&datefe=&nomusuel=&domaine=&mots=&resmax=100

    Copy and paste in IE
    Last edited by dirtyrider; 23rd November 2006 at 12:03 PM.

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    DF VIP Member Waka's Avatar
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    Default Re: no-cigs.com

    This goes *against* the legal advice the EU were given. This isn't over yet.

    It doesn't surprise me that Brown got his wishes - he would only have put taxes on the air we breathe to compensate for the lost £billions...useless inefficient fat cvnt.

    W.

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    VIP Member CzarJunkie's Avatar
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    Default Re: no-cigs.com

    Quote Originally Posted by Roach-Rampino View Post
    I thought it was too good to be true when I first heard that booze and tobacco could be bought "duty-free" online.

    CJ, you don't smoke or drink how do you feel about this?
    It's a bit of a fucker to be honest. We had plans to set up shop in Latvia, got a couple of contacts over there and things would have been relatively easy to set up. Latvia have made it very attractive for foriegn investors with low corporation tax and other associated perks.

    Oh well, my plan to make people ill then heal them is shot to shit.

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    Default Re: no-cigs.com

    well there's always Crystal Meth, that seems to be undergoing a bit of a renaissance lately... Set up a couple of labs in your attic / cellar, get the kids on board, then open up the CJ Crystal Meth Rehab franchise and you're attacking the industry at both ends like some drug fuelled spitroast
    ---------------------------------------------------
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    R.I.H Saddam

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    DF VIP Member BertRoot's Avatar
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    Default Re: no-cigs.com

    Inconsiderate cunts. I was looking forward to getttig my four weekly tins of Mackeson a quid cheaper. Bastards.


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    VIP Member Snak3's Avatar
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    Default Re: no-cigs.com

    wankers. The principle of the single market is about all that there is going for the EU. Brown and his lefty friends must be clapping their hands with glee.

    EU = All give, no take

    Btw, does anyone know how much a box of 200 are in mainland France these days? Am going skiing after Xmas...
    "The British Secret Service was staffed at one point almost entirely by alcoholic homosexuals working for the KGB."
    Clive James

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    Default Re: no-cigs.com

    Quote Originally Posted by Roach-Rampino View Post
    CJ, you don't smoke or drink how do you feel about this?
    Really? I'm in awe of people that abstain. Quite envious in a way.

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    VIP Member CzarJunkie's Avatar
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    Default Re: no-cigs.com

    Quote Originally Posted by WalterPill View Post
    Really? I'm in awe of people that abstain. Quite envious in a way.
    When I did drink/smoke the very thought of never doing it again was the biggest hurdle to giving up. But it was just a habit and once you get out of the habit it's easy.

    Having said that, there's no way I could have done it in my 20's.

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    Default Re: no-cigs.com

    Quote Originally Posted by CzarJunkie View Post
    When I did drink/smoke the very thought of never doing it again was the biggest hurdle to giving up. But it was just a habit and once you get out of the habit it's easy.

    Having said that, there's no way I could have done it in my 20's.
    I'm thinking of getting hypnotised to stop boozing. I haven't got a proper drink problem but neither have I the self discipline to stop all together.

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    DF VIP Member DJAd's Avatar
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    Default Re: no-cigs.com

    Quote Originally Posted by Roach-Rampino View Post
    I'm thinking of getting hypnotised to stop boozing. I haven't got a proper drink problem but neither have I the self discipline to stop all together.

    A friend of mines mother was hypnotised to help stop smoking. Only about £150 which I would imagine to be a good price.

    She was a 40 a day girl so giving up was a challenge. She stopped for about 4 months I think but then got back on the cig's. The session was a present from her parents as they wanted her to quit.

    She said hypnotherapy would of been the long time solution but as she didn't want to quit in the first place she could kind of fight it.

    Although she did say if you DO want to quit and are trying to stop its well worth the money.

    I would love to stop drinking & smoking but I gotta have my vice's somewhere!

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    Default Re: no-cigs.com

    Quote Originally Posted by DJAd View Post
    A friend of mines mother was hypnotised to help stop smoking. Only about £150 which I would imagine to be a good price.

    She was a 40 a day girl so giving up was a challenge. She stopped for about 4 months I think but then got back on the cig's. The session was a present from her parents as they wanted her to quit.

    She said hypnotherapy would of been the long time solution but as she didn't want to quit in the first place she could kind of fight it.

    Although she did say if you DO want to quit and are trying to stop its well worth the money.

    I would love to stop drinking & smoking but I gotta have my vice's somewhere!
    I know of plenty of folk who have had great success with Alan Carr therapy sessions to quit smoking, I gave up 13 years ago through will power (and a £15 bet).

    I just think being hypnotised would give me the shove I need to stop drinking as I have been toying with the idea for a while now.

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    DF VIP Member WalterPill's Avatar
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    Default Re: no-cigs.com

    Smoking I would like to give up for health and financial reasons. Drinking I would like to give up purely for the egotistical benefits, control, wit and wisdom in social situations.

    If you can keep your head when all about you
    Are losing theirs and blaming it on you;
    If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
    But make allowance for their doubting too:
    If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
    Or, being lied about, don't deal in lies,
    Or being hated don't give way to hating,
    And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise;

    If you can dream---and not make dreams your master;
    If you can think---and not make thoughts your aim,
    If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
    And treat those two impostors just the same:.
    If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken
    Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
    Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
    And stoop and build'em up with worn-out tools;

    If you can make one heap of all your winnings
    And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
    And lose, and start again at your beginnings,
    And never breathe a word about your loss:
    If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
    To serve your turn long after they are gone,
    And so hold on when there is nothing in you
    Except the Will which says to them: "Hold on!"

    If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
    Or walk with Kings---nor lose the common touch,
    If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,
    If all men count with you, but none too much:
    If you can fill the unforgiving minute
    With sixty seconds' worth of distance run,
    Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,
    And---which is more---you'll be a Man, my son!

    Kipling had the right idea.

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    Argyll's Apprentice TwoPlAnKs's Avatar
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    Default Re: no-cigs.com

    well.. thats good

    i work in an off liscense, dont smoke and drink once a week so this is definitly the way to go in my opinion

    assuming that nobody could possibly argue that cigarettes should actually go down in price, i think i am happy with alcohol as it is. admitadly i'd rather pay less for a pint but in the end, the price is one of the things that helps people actually have a life outside of being drunk. whether it just stops people like me who dont know when to stop from getting sick, or whether it stops half the population from going alcoholic, its definitly needed in our drinking culture.

    france and spain have done something, god knows what but something, to make people drink responsibly. we can either do whatever that is or we simply have to keep the taxes on it. maybe its a simple as alcohol not being "cool" because even kids get to drink it and the laws are so lenient in general, and people arent getting into the habit of it when they are younger.

    the cost of alochol to the country is such that the tax is a way of paying people back. if i'm walking home from the pub and wake up an old lady by singing, it makes me feel a bit less bad the next morning when i think that part of the tax i paid on that last drink i didnt need might have helped pay for her new hip or given her a part of her pension that month.

    must be a cunt for people who smoke and drink a lot though
    "The Net interprets censorship as damage and routes around it." - John Gilmore

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