The state Attorney General's office is suing the Tobacco House roll-your-own cigarette shop in DeWitt for breaking federal cigarette-manufacturing laws and evading cigarette taxes.

The lawsuit charges that the Tobacco House, where customers buy loose tobacco and use a machine to roll 200 cigarettes for $28.99, violates several state and federal laws.

“Rather than playing by the rules, this store and others like it are cheating the state out of millions of dollars per year in legitimate tax revenue and endangering public health and safety while they’re doing it,” Attorney General Eric Schneiderman said in a statement. “The illegally low prices this business is charging for their store-made machine-rolled cigarettes have been shown time and again to encourage people to take up smoking and to discourage smokers from quitting."

The state's lawsuit charges that the Tobacco House is in violation of the Federal Contraband Cigarette Trafficking Act, the New York State Cigarette Marketing Standards Act, and New York State tax law, for selling cigarettes on which the required taxes have not been paid. The lawsuit also says Tobacco House is violating New York’s Cigarette Fire Safety Act by selling cigarettes that have not been certified as “fire-safe” to extinguish more quickly than standard cigarettes, and which bear no health warnings, both of which are required by New York State law.

The state and New York City have sued several other similar stores Downstate.

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Tobacco House Lawsuit