NFRN launches app proposal to combat illicit tobacco

Joe Sweeney, NFRN Ireland president, John Perry, Minister for Small Business and Fionnuala Carolan, editor, ShelfLife magazine

NFRN has proposed that the government introduces a smartphone app that can trace the origin of tobacco products and determine cigarettes' legality

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The National Federation of Retail Newsagents (NFRN) Ireland launched a proposal for a smartphone app to combat the illegal cigarette trade on 21 November at an NFRN Executive Council Meeting which was attended by the Minister of State for Small Business, John Perry.

The retail group proposed that the Irish Government would consider adopting the model being introduced in Switzerland, and work with the tobacco industry to develop a similar smartphone app for use in Ireland.

According to NFRN Ireland president Joe Sweeney: "Such an app would provide law enforcement officials, where there is a suspicion that tobacco products are counterfeit or smuggled, with a simple and effective tool for determining immediately whether or not this is the case. It would also provide consumers with a means to ensure they have not unknowingly been sold counterfeit/smuggled goods."

Sweeney explained that tobacco companies have developed a new technology called ‘Codentify’ which allows the tracking and tracing of tobacco products. It involves printing a secure 12-digit code onto packs and cartons during manufacturing.
The Codentify solution makes it impossible for counterfeiters to replicate or steal a valid code.

Sweeney says that while a packet of cigarettes costs around €9 in his shop, they can now be bought on the street for around €3.20.

Sweeney is also concerned that if the plain packaging for cigarettes that is currently being introduced to the Australian market, was introduced here, it would make it even easier for criminals to smuggle cigarettes.

The illicit tobacco trade is estimated to cost retailers €500 million in lost sales a year and in 2011 alone 700 hundred jobs were lost directly as a result of these lost sales.

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