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BRUSSELS, Belgium (AP) - The European Union's Court of Justice on Thursday ruled illegal a German tax loophole that allows tobacco companies to avoid high taxes on a type of cigarettes that smokers must assemble themselves, a decision the tobacco industry claims will cost up to 2,000 German jobs.
The Luxembourg-based EU court said Imperial Tobacco's self-assembly cigarettes, sold under the product name "West Single Packs," should be classified along with other cigarettes, and as such should face the same taxes.
Tobacco companies in Germany have been selling the low-taxed ready-made rolls of tobacco — known as singles and sticks — and matching paper tubes at half the price of regular cigarettes, taking advantage of the German tax loophole.
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