15 U.S.C. § 376a
Delivery sales
United States · Title 15 — COMMERCE AND TRADE · Status: effective
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- Citation
- 15 U.S.C. § 376a, Delivery sales, United States, version 1 as recorded 2026-07-09, yourstate.us, https://yourstate.us/provision/440430
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Full text
With respect to delivery sales into a specific State and place, each delivery seller shall comply with—
all State, local, tribal, and other laws generally applicable to sales of cigarettes or smokeless tobacco as if the delivery sales occurred entirely within the specific State and place, including laws imposing—
For any shipping package containing cigarettes or smokeless tobacco, the delivery seller shall include on the bill of lading, if any, and on the outside of the shipping package, on the same surface as the delivery address, a clear and conspicuous statement providing as follows: “CIGARETTES/NICOTINE/SMOKELESS TOBACCO: FEDERAL LAW REQUIRES THE PAYMENT OF ALL APPLICABLE EXCISE TAXES, AND COMPLIANCE WITH APPLICABLE LICENSING AND TAX-STAMPING OBLIGATIONS”.
Any shipping package described in paragraph (1) that is not labeled in accordance with that paragraph shall be treated as nondeliverable matter by a common carrier or other delivery service, if the common carrier or other delivery service knows or should know the package contains cigarettes or smokeless tobacco. If a common carrier or other delivery service believes a package is being submitted for delivery in violation of paragraph (1), it may require the person submitting the package for delivery to establish that it is not being sent in violation of paragraph (1) before accepting the package for delivery. Nothing in this paragraph shall require the common carrier or other delivery service to open any package to determine its contents.
A delivery seller shall not sell, offer for sale, deliver, or cause to be delivered in any single sale or single delivery any cigarettes or smokeless tobacco weighing more than 10 pounds.
A delivery seller who mails or ships tobacco products—
shall use a method of mailing or shipping that requires—
shall not accept a delivery sale order from a person without—
No database being used for age and identity verification under subparagraph (A)(iii) shall be in the possession or under the control of the delivery seller, or be subject to any changes or supplementation by the delivery seller.
Each delivery seller shall keep a record of any delivery sale, including all of the information described in section 376(a)(2) of this title, organized by the State, and within the State, by the city or town and by zip code, into which the delivery sale is so made.
Records of a delivery sale shall be kept as described in paragraph (1) until the end of the 4th full calendar year that begins after the date of the delivery sale.
Records kept under paragraph (1) shall be made available to tobacco tax administrators of the States, to local governments and Indian tribes that apply local or tribal taxes on cigarettes or smokeless tobacco, to the attorneys general of the States, to the chief law enforcement officers of the local governments and Indian tribes, and to the Attorney General of the United States in order to ensure the compliance of persons making delivery sales with the requirements of this chapter.
Except as provided in paragraph (2), no delivery seller may sell or deliver to any consumer, or tender to any common carrier or other delivery service, any cigarettes or smokeless tobacco pursuant to a delivery sale unless, in advance of the sale, delivery, or tender—
Paragraph (1) does not apply to a delivery sale of smokeless tobacco if the law of the State or local government of the place where the smokeless tobacco is to be delivered requires or otherwise provides that delivery sellers collect the excise tax from the consumer and remit the excise tax to the State or local government, and the delivery seller complies with the requirement.
Not later than 90 days after this subsection goes into effect under the Prevent All Cigarette Trafficking Act of 2009, the Attorney General of the United States shall compile a list of delivery sellers of cigarettes or smokeless tobacco that have not registered with the Attorney General of the United States pursuant to section 376(a) of this title, or that are otherwise not in compliance with this chapter, and—
distribute the list to—
To the extent known, the Attorney General of the United States shall include, for each delivery seller on the list described in subparagraph (A)—
The Attorney General of the United States shall update and distribute the list described in subparagraph (A) at least once every 4 months, and may distribute the list and any updates by regular mail, electronic mail, or any other reasonable means, or by providing recipients with access to the list through a nonpublic website that the Attorney General of the United States regularly updates.
The Attorney General of the United States shall include in the list described in subparagraph (A) any noncomplying delivery sellers identified by any State, local, or tribal government under paragraph (6), and shall distribute the list to the attorney general or chief law enforcement official and the tax administrator of any government submitting any such information, and to any common carriers or other persons who deliver small packages to consumers identified by any government pursuant to paragraph (6).
In preparing and revising the list described in subparagraph (A), the Attorney General of the United States shall—
The list described in subparagraph (A) shall be confidential, and any person receiving the list shall maintain the confidentiality of the list and may deliver the list, for enforcement purposes, to any government official or to any common carrier or other person that delivers tobacco products or small packages to consumers. Nothing in this section shall prohibit a common carrier, the United States Postal Service, or any other person receiving the list from discussing with a listed delivery seller the inclusion of the delivery seller on the list and the resulting effects on any services requested by the listed delivery seller.
Commencing on the date that is 60 days after the date of the initial distribution or availability of the list described in paragraph (1)(A), no person who receives the list under paragraph (1), and no person who delivers cigarettes or smokeless tobacco to consumers, shall knowingly complete, cause to be completed, or complete its portion of a delivery of any package for any person whose name and address are on the list, unless—
Commencing on the date that is 30 days after the date of the distribution or availability of any updates or corrections to the list described in paragraph (1)(A), all recipients and all common carriers or other persons that deliver cigarettes or smokeless tobacco to consumers shall be subject to subparagraph (A) in regard to the corrections or updates.
Subsection (b)(2) and any requirements or restrictions placed directly on common carriers under this subsection, including subparagraphs (A) and (B) of paragraph (2), shall not apply to a common carrier that—
A settlement agreement described in this subparagraph—
includes—
If a common carrier or other delivery service delays or interrupts the delivery of a package in the possession of the common carrier or delivery service because the common carrier or delivery service determines or has reason to believe that the person ordering the delivery is on a list described in paragraph (1)(A) and that clauses (i), (ii), and (iii) of paragraph (2)(A) do not apply—
the person ordering the delivery shall be obligated to pay—
A common carrier or other delivery service shall maintain, for a period of 5 years, any records kept in the ordinary course of business relating to any delivery interrupted under this paragraph and provide that information, upon request, to the Attorney General of the United States or to the attorney general or chief law enforcement official or tax administrator of any State, local, or tribal government.
Any person receiving records under subparagraph (B) shall—
No State, local, or tribal government, nor any political authority of 2 or more State, local, or tribal governments, may enact or enforce any law or regulation relating to delivery sales that restricts deliveries of cigarettes or smokeless tobacco to consumers by common carriers or other delivery services on behalf of delivery sellers by—
Except as provided in subparagraph (C), nothing in this paragraph shall be construed to nullify, expand, restrict, or otherwise amend or modify—
Except as provided in clause (ii), nothing in the Prevent All Cigarette Trafficking Act of 2009, the amendments made by that Act, or in any other Federal statute shall be construed to preempt, supersede, or otherwise limit or restrict State laws prohibiting the delivery sale, or the shipment or delivery pursuant to a delivery sale, of cigarettes or other tobacco products to individual consumers or personal residences.
No State may enforce against a common carrier a law prohibiting the delivery of cigarettes or other tobacco products to individual consumers or personal residences without proof that the common carrier is not exempt under paragraph (3) of this subsection.
Any State, local, or tribal government shall provide the Attorney General of the United States with—
all known names, addresses, website addresses, and other primary contact information of any delivery seller that—
Any government providing a list to the Attorney General of the United States under subparagraph (A) shall also provide updates and corrections every 4 months until such time as the government notifies the Attorney General of the United States in writing that the government no longer desires to submit information to supplement the list described in paragraph (1)(A).
Upon receiving written notice that a government no longer desires to submit information under subparagraph (A), the Attorney General of the United States shall remove from the list described in paragraph (1)(A) any persons that are on the list solely because of the prior submissions of the government of the list of the government of noncomplying delivery sellers of cigarettes or smokeless tobacco or a subsequent update or correction by the government.
The Attorney General of the United States shall—
Not later than 14 days before including any delivery seller on the initial list described in paragraph (1)(A), or on an update to the list for the first time, the Attorney General of the United States shall make a reasonable attempt to send notice to the delivery seller by letter, electronic mail, or other means that the delivery seller is being placed on the list or update, with that notice citing the relevant provisions of this chapter.
Any common carrier or other person making a delivery subject to this subsection shall not be required or otherwise obligated to—
Any common carrier or other person making a delivery subject to this subsection—
Any common carrier or person in the business of delivering packages on behalf of other persons shall not be subject to any penalty under section 14101(a) of title 49 or any other provision of law for—
Section 376 of this title and subsections (a), (b), (c), and (d) of this section shall not be interpreted to impose any responsibilities, requirements, or liability on common carriers.
For purposes of this chapter, a delivery sale shall be deemed to have occurred in the State and place where the buyer obtains personal possession of the cigarettes or smokeless tobacco, and a delivery pursuant to a delivery sale is deemed to have been initiated or ordered by the delivery seller.
Legislative history
The public laws that enacted or amended this section. Tallies are for the whole bill as it passed each chamber — often an omnibus covering far more than this provision — not a vote on this section alone.
- PACT ActHouse: 387–25Senate: no recorded tally
- Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2021House: no recorded tallySenate: no recorded tally