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● The tobacco industry spends the largest share of its annual marketing budget on price discounts. Minimum price laws have the potential to counteract the tobacco industry’s price manipulation strategies, especially if they are paired with couponing/promotions prohibitions. ● The tobacco industry uses a variety of innovative pricing strategies to discourage current tobacco users from quitting, to entice new customers to purchase their products, and to reduce the effectiveness of tobacco tax increases. ● These strategies include popular discounting schemes, such as cents- or dollar-off promotions, multi-pack offers (e.g., two-for-one deals), and other price-related incentives (e.g., buy-some-get-some-free offers). Many of these retail value-added promotions are advertised and used at the point of sale or made available through coupons. ● The tobacco industry uses sophisticated research to apply these strategies to specific products in particular geographic locations, and to target certain groups of people. ● Given the tobacco industry’s extensive use of price discounting schemes and strong evidence that price has a significant impact on overall tobacco use and youth initiation, a growing number of state and local communities are considering pricing policies, in addition to taxation, as part of comprehensive tobacco control programs.8 ● Although some pricing strategies are relatively untested, states and many localities have broad legal authority to regulate the sale and distribution of tobacco products in their jurisdictions. If regulations are carefully drafted to focus on tobacco product pricing, retailer conduct at the point of sale, and transactions within a specific jurisdiction, these pricing laws are likely to be upheld, even if they are challenged by the tobacco industry.9 ● It is estimated that if price-discounting schemes were banned across the U.S., the number of current established smokers would decrease by more than 13%.10 ● A smoking decrease due to discounting bans could help reduce tobacco use in populations that are heavily targeted by tobacco companies. For example, African Americans are more likely to take advantage of pricing discounts and multi-pack offers than other racial and ethnic groups, regardless of income. 11 ● Additionally, price promotions for menthol cigarettes are more prevalent in neighborhoods with higher concentrations of African American youth.12 ● Most minimum price laws currently in place are ineffective for tobacco control because they allow for tobacco industry discounts. These discounts can actually lead to a lower minimum price. 12 Ibid. 11 Henriksen L. Comprehensive tobacco marketing restrictions: promotion, packaging, price and place. Tob Control. 2012 Mar;21(2):147-53. doi: 10.1136/tobaccocontrol-2011-050416. PMID: 22345238; PMCID: PMC4256379. 10 Marynak KL, Xu X, Wang X, Holmes CB, Tynan MA, Pechacek T. Estimating the Impact of Raising Prices and Eliminating Discounts on Cigarette Smoking Prevalence in the United States. Public Health Rep. 2016 Jul-Aug;131(4):536-43. doi: 10.1177/0033354916662211. PMID: 27453597; PMCID: PMC4937114.```````````````` 9 Policy Approaches to Restricting Tobacco Product Coupons and Retail Value-Added Promotions, Tobacco Control Legal Consortium, 2013 8 Death on a Discount: Regulating Tobacco Product Pricing, Tobacco Control Legal Consortium, 2015. Association for Nonsmokers- MN www.ansrmn.org 41