Until August, the Tax Agency has seized more than 3.5 tons of contraband tobacco distributed in packages

Tobacco smuggling via the internet

• The interventions exceed by 72% those carried out in the first eight months of last year, and even exceed those carried out in the whole of 2023

• The AEAT has deployed, together with the Tobacco Board, a plan to combat online sales that has already led to the elimination of more than 6,300 illegal advertisements on the web, of which more than 1,800 in the first eight months of the year.

September 28, 2024.- The Customs Surveillance Service of the Tax Agency has seized more than 3.5 tons of smuggled chopped tobacco distributed by small packages in the first eight months of 2024, which is 72% more than in the same period of the previous year, already exceeding the quantities seized by this type of smuggling in the whole of 2023, when 3.2 tons were seized.

The gradual growth of the illegal sale of chopped tobacco through advertisements on the Internet and subsequent distribution in small packages has led the Tax Agency and the Tobacco Board to deploy a special plan to combat this phenomenon by eliminating illegal advertisements on the web and initiating administrative violations of smuggling.

As a result of this joint work, from 2022 until last August, 6,366 advertisements for the sale of tobacco products online have been removed, of which 1,872 have been withdrawn in the first eight months of this year.

The illicit trade in tobacco products, in addition to resulting in a loss of revenue, is a social problem, given the lack of quality and safety controls on illegal products and the source of funding it represents for other criminal activities. This illegal trade mainly affects cigarettes and cut tobacco.

Within the framework of the collaboration agreement between the Tax Agency and the Tobacco Board for the prevention and fight against the illicit trade of tobacco, joint actions have been developed between the General Subdirectorate of Operations of the Customs Department and the Tobacco Board itself, focused on combating the sale of cut tobacco through advertisements on the Internet, an activity carried out in an illicit manner and not in accordance with the law.

The sale of tobacco products over the Internet is considered a prohibited sale. For sellers, intermediaries and purchasers, when the facts constitute an infringement, fines are foreseen that may reach 600% of the value of the tobacco seized, as well as, where appropriate, the closure of the establishment or suspension of the exercise of the activity for a period of up to one year.