I 
108TH CONGRESS 
1ST SESSION H. R. 3047
To prevent the sale of tobacco products to minors by means of electronic 
or mail-order sales, and for other purposes. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
SEPTEMBER 9, 2003
Mr. MEEHAN introduced the following bill; which was referred to the 
Committee on Energy and Commerce 
A BILL 
To prevent the sale of tobacco products to minors by means 
of electronic or mail-order sales, and for other purposes.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Tobacco Free Internet 
for Kids Act of 2003’’. 
SEC. 2. DEFINITIONS. 
In this Act—
(1) The term ‘‘attorney general’’, with respect 
to a State, means the attorney general or other chief
law enforcement officer of the State, or the designee 
of that officer. 
(2) The term ‘‘consumer’’ means an individual 
who purchases or arranges or attempts to purchase 
a tobacco product either for the consumer or on be-
half of some other person. 
(3) The term ‘‘delivery sale’’ means any sale of 
tobacco products for personal consumption in or af-
fecting interstate commerce to a consumer if—
(A) the consumer submits the order for 
such sale by means of a telephone or other 
method of voice transmission, the mails, or the 
Internet or other online service, or the seller is 
otherwise not in the physical presence of the 
buyer when the request for purchase or order is 
made; or 
(B) the tobacco product is not delivered di-
rectly to a consumer by the seller at the time 
and place of purchase; or 
(C) the tobacco product is delivered by use 
of a common carrier, private delivery service, or 
the mails, or the seller is not in the physical 
presence of the buyer when the buyer obtains 
personal possession of the delivered cigarettes 
or smokeless tobacco; and
(D) notwithstanding the foregoing, any de-
livery of tobacco products to a home or residen-
tial address by a person in the business of man-
ufacturing, distributing, or selling tobacco prod-
ucts, whether any fee is charged for the tobacco 
products or not, shall be considered a delivery 
sale. 
(4) The term ‘‘delivery seller’’ means any per-
son making a delivery sale. 
(5) The term ‘‘interstate commerce’’ means 
commerce between a State and any place outside the 
State, commerce between a State and any Indian 
lands in the State, or commerce between points in 
the same State but though any place outside the 
State or through any Indian lands. 
(6) The term ‘‘minor’’ means an individual who 
has not attained the age of 18 years or, if older, the 
minimum age for the purchase of a tobacco product 
under applicable Federal, State, local, or Indian 
tribal law. 
(7) The term ‘‘person’’ means any corporation, 
company, partnership, joint stock companies, foun-
dation, association, organization, individual, State or 
local government, Indian Tribal government, govern-
mental organization, or any group thereof.
(8) The term ‘‘State’’ includes the District of 
Columbia, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, and 
any other commonwealth, territory, or possession of 
the United States. 
(9) The term ‘‘tobacco product’’ has the mean-
ing given that term in section 5702(c) of the Inter-
nal Revenue Code of 1986, and also includes any 
other product that contains tobacco and is meant for 
human consumption. 
SEC. 3. DELIVERY SALE REQUIREMENTS. 
(a) NO SALES TO MINORS.—No delivery seller shall 
sell or deliver a tobacco product to a minor or cause any 
tobacco product to be sold or delivered to a minor. 
(b) NO UNREQUESTED DELIVERIES OF TOBACCO 
PRODUCTS.—No person in the business of manufacturing, 
distributing, or selling tobacco products shall deliver any 
tobacco products to any home or residence or to any con-
sumer for personal consumption, unless the person receiv-
ing the tobacco products has specifically requested the de-
livery of the tobacco products and paid for them. 
(c) STATE REGISTRATION.—A delivery seller shall 
not make any delivery sale or related delivery to a con-
sumer physically located in a State unless the delivery sell-
er has already registered with that State as a delivery sell-
er of tobacco products. Registration with the State pursu-
ant to section 2 of the Act of October 19, 1949, commonly 
referred to as the ‘‘Jenkins Act’’ (15 U.S.C. 376) shall 
satisfy the registration requirement of this subsection. 
(d) VERIFICATION OF CONSUMER AGE, IDENTITY, 
AND ADDRESS AT PURCHASE.—No person shall accept a 
delivery sale order from a person or make a delivery sale 
or initiate any related tobacco product delivery to any per-
son without first verifying the consumer’s age, identity, 
and residential address by one of the following means—
(1) obtaining from the consumer the con-
sumer’s name, address, birth date and residential 
address and verifying that information through the 
use of a commercially available database or aggre-
gate of databases consisting of age and identity in-
formation from government-issued identification sup-
plemented by age and identity information from 
other government or validated commercial sources 
that is regularly used by government and businesses 
for the purpose of identity verification and authen-
tication. But no database or databases being used 
for such age and identity verification 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; and
(2) obtaining a statement signed by the con-
sumer (which may be a statement provided or ob-
tained and signed electronically) providing certifi-
cation from the consumer that—
(A) all of the information provided by the 
consumer, including the consumer’s name, ad-
dress, and birth date, are correct; 
(B) the consumer understands that forging 
another person’s signature is illegal; and 
(C) the consumer understands that tobacco 
product sales to persons under the applicable 
legal minimum age (which must be specified, 
numerically, in the statement) are illegal and 
that tobacco product purchases by a person 
under the legal minimum age or by any person 
for the subsequent delivery or sale to persons 
under the legal minimum age may subject the 
person to monetary fines or imprisonment, or 
both, under applicable state law; or 
(3) using any other age and identity verification 
procedure established by the United States Attorney 
General that employs new technologies to provide 
even more stringent and accurate identity and age 
verification than the procedure in subsection (1).
(e) CONFIDENTIALITY
OF
CONSUMER
INFORMA-
TION.—A delivery seller shall not use any of the age and 
identity information they obtain from a prospective or ac-
tual consumer, including any information that could be 
used to contact the consumer, for any other purposes 
other than to complete the delivery sale or to comply with 
this Act or other laws unless the consumer affirmatively 
provides authorization for such specified other use and the 
delivery seller regularly provides the consumer with clear 
and conspicuous opportunities to revoke that authoriza-
tion. This subsection shall not be construed to limit, re-
strict, or reduce any other laws protecting the disclosure 
or unauthorized use of personal or consumer information. 
(f) PAYMENT METHODS.—A delivery seller shall ac-
cept payment from a consumer only by debit card, charge 
card, or credit card issued to the consumer identified 
under subsection (d) with the same residential address, 
and the delivery seller shall ensure that any related re-
ceipt, invoice, or summary of a payment provided by a 
debit card, credit card, or charge card company to the con-
sumer clearly indicates (by including the use of the word 
‘‘tobacco’’ or ‘‘cigarette’’, and by other means) that the 
delivery seller is a seller of tobacco products or that the 
transaction is a sale of a tobacco product.
(g) VERIFICATION OF ORDER.—At least five business 
days prior to delivering any tobacco product to a con-
sumer, a delivery seller shall send to the name and address 
provided by the consumer pursuant to subsection (d) a let-
ter that describes the order and asks that the recipient 
reply immediately (to a specified toll-free phone number 
or email address) if the recipient did not place the order 
or otherwise desires to cancel it. 
(h) DELIVERY ADDRESSES.—Any tobacco product 
sold through or delivered pursuant to a delivery sale shall 
not be delivered to any address outside the United States, 
and shall be delivered only to a consumer’s residential ad-
dress unless the consumer is a verified member of the U.S. 
Armed Forces, as evidenced by a document issued by the 
U.S. Department of Defense that includes a photograph 
of the consumer, in which case the delivery may be made 
to the consumer at the address for the consumer in the 
Department of Defense identification document. 
(i) DELIVERY REQUIREMENTS.—
(1) A delivery seller shall use a method of deliv-
ery to the consumer that ensures that the person 
physically making the delivery delivers the tobacco 
product only after the consumer or another adult re-
siding at the consumer’s address who has been des-
ignated at the time of purchase by the consumer as
an alternative recipient and whose age and identity 
have been verified by the delivery seller pursuant to 
the process described in subsection (d)—
(A) signs to accept delivery of the ciga-
rettes or smokeless tobacco; 
(B) provides proof of identity, age, and 
residence, in the form of a valid, government-
issued identification bearing a photograph of 
the person; and 
(C) if not the consumer, signs a statement 
confirming that he or she knows the consumer 
and that the consumer is not under the legal 
minimum purchase age. 
(2) If the compliance costs would not be pro-
hibitively expensive, the Attorney General may re-
quire that delivery sellers ensure that the age and 
identity of any individual accepting delivery of ciga-
rettes or smokeless tobacco delivered pursuant to a 
delivery sale be verified at the point of delivery in 
accordance with subsection (d). 
(3) A delivery seller shall ensure that the bill of 
lading for any tobacco product delivered pursuant to 
a delivery sale clearly states the above requirements 
of this subsection and specifies that federal law re-
quires compliance with the requirements prior to the 
completion of any delivery. 
(4) A delivery seller shall provide to any person 
making deliveries of a tobacco product on the deliv-
ery seller’s behalf—
(A) notice that the delivery seller is placing 
(or intends to place) a tobacco product for de-
livery by the delivery service as part of a deliv-
ery sale; 
(B) documentation that the delivery seller 
has registered as an interstate seller of tobacco 
products with the State in which the physical 
delivery to the consumer is being made; and 
(C) for each delivery, the name, age, and 
birth date of the consumer and any other per-
son designated by the consumer as an alternate 
recipient of the delivery. 
(j) DELIVERY SERVICE DUTIES.—
(1) A common carrier, private delivery service, 
or any other person shall not knowingly make any 
delivery of any tobacco product on behalf of a deliv-
ery seller that does not fully comply with the re-
quirements of subsection (h), and shall not know-
ingly deliver any tobacco product to any person 
under the legal minimum age.
(2) No common carrier or other delivery service 
shall be subject to any liability or penalty under any 
federal or other laws for choosing as a matter of pol-
icy not to deliver to any tobacco products or any 
particular tobacco products to any homes or resi-
dences or not to deliver any delivery sale tobacco 
products or particular tobacco products in any or all 
states. 
(k) MINIMUM AND MAXIMUM SALE AMOUNTS.—
(1) No delivery seller shall make any single sale 
or delivery to a consumer of less than 400 ciga-
rettes, 20 single consumer-sized packages of smoke-
less tobacco, or 40 cigars; and the Attorney General 
may set minimum sale amounts for other types of 
tobacco products. 
(2) In any 10-day period, no delivery seller shall 
make any sale or delivery or multiple sales and deliv-
eries to any single consumer of in an amount in ex-
cess of 2,000 cigarettes, 100 single consumer-sized 
packages of smokeless tobacco, or 200 cigars; and 
the Attorney General may set maximum delivery sale 
amounts for other types of tobacco products. 
(l) DELIVERY SALE WEBSITES.—A delivery seller 
shall not offer any tobacco product for sale through an 
Internet website unless—
(1) a person cannot access any website page 
that offers tobacco products for sale or transacts 
any tobacco product sale until the delivery seller has 
first satisfied the requirements of subsection (d) in 
relation to that person; and 
(2) any Internet website pages used by the de-
livery seller to comply with the requirements of sub-
section (d), including any website pages a consumer 
must access prior to accessing the age and identify 
verification website pages, are not used for any other 
purpose than to fulfill the requirements of sub-
section (d) or to provide access to the website pages 
used to comply with those requirements; and consist 
only of nonmoving black text on a white background, 
with no graphics or other pictorial depictions. 
SEC. 4. PENALTIES. 
(a) CIVIL PENALTIES.—
(1) Any delivery seller who violates this Act (or 
any person willfully participating in any such viola-
tion, including but not limited to any person who 
owns, controls, or manages the delivery seller) is 
subject to a civil penalty not to exceed $5,000 for a 
first violation and not to exceed $10,000 for any sec-
ond or additional violation.
(2) Any common carrier, private delivery serv-
ice, or other person who delivers tobacco products on 
behalf of a delivery seller (or any person willfully 
participating in any such violation, including but not 
limited to any person who owns, controls, or man-
ages the person who makes the delivery on behalf of 
the delivery seller) who knowingly violates this Act 
is subject to a civil penalty not to exceed $5,000 for 
a first violation and not to exceed $10,000 for any 
second or additional violation. 
(3) A civil penalty for a violation of this Act 
under this subsection is in addition to any criminal 
penalty under subsection (b) for the violation and in 
addition to any other injunctive or equitable relief, 
including money damages, for such violations. 
(b) CRIMINAL PENALTIES.—A delivery seller that 
knowingly violates this Act (or any person willfully partici-
pating in any such violation, including but not limited to 
any person who owns, controls, or manages the delivery 
seller) shall be guilty of a felony, fined under subchapter 
C of chapter 227 of title 18, imprisoned not more than 
three years, or both. 
SEC. 5. ENFORCEMENT. 
(a) DISTRICT COURT JURISDICTION.—The United 
States district courts shall have primary jurisdiction to
prevent and restrain violations of this Act, provide other 
appropriate injunctive or equitable relief, including money 
damages, award civil penalties, and impose criminal pen-
alties for such violations. 
(b) FEDERAL ENFORCEMENT.—The Attorney Gen-
eral shall administer and enforce the provisions of this 
Act. 
(c) 
ENFORCEMENT
BY
STATES
AND
INDIAN 
TRIBES.—
(1) A State, through its attorney general and 
an Indian Tribe through its chief law enforcement 
officer, or designee thereof, may bring a civil action 
under this Act in the United States district courts 
to prevent and restrain violations of this Act by any 
person (or by any person controlling such person) or 
to obtain any other appropriate relief from any per-
son (or from any person controlling such person) for 
violations of this Act, including civil penalties, 
money damages, and injunctive or other equitable 
relief. 
(2) The remedies available under this sub-
section are in addition to any other remedies avail-
able under Federal, State, Tribal, or other law. 
(3) Nothing in this Act shall be construed to 
prohibit an authorized State official from proceeding
(2) provides for the seizure of tobacco products 
or other property related to a violation of such laws; 
or 
(3) establishes cooperative programs for the ad-
ministration of such laws. 
(c) BUSINESS ENTITIES NOT SUBJECT TO LIABIL-
ITY.—This Act does not create any new Federal require-
ments or potential liability of any kind for business enti-
ties providing communication technologies (e.g., phone 
companies or internet service providers), computer soft-
ware or related services, or credit or debit card services; 
nor does this Act limit, amend, or expand any existing 
Federal requirements or potential liability for any such en-
tities, except to the extent that those entities are delivery 
sellers, persons that deliver tobacco products on behalf of 
delivery sellers, or otherwise directly engaged in the sale 
or delivery of tobacco products. 
SEC. 7. EFFECTIVE DATE. 
This Act shall go into effect 90 days after it is passed 
into law.
Æ