Tobacco is monopolized in China, and the Tobacco Monopoly Law of the People's Republic of China (hereinafter referred to as "Tobacco Monopoly Law") clearly stipulates the licensing system for dealing in tobacco products, which is briefly listed as follows:

According to Article 1 of the Interpretation of Several Issues Concerning the Specific Application of Laws in Handling Criminal Cases of Illegal Production and Sale of Tobacco Monopoly Products, etc. Whoever illegally deals in tobacco monopoly products without the permission of the department of tobacco monopoly administration, the license of tobacco monopoly production enterprise, tobacco monopoly wholesale enterprise, special tobacco monopoly enterprise and tobacco monopoly retail license, if the circumstances are serious, shall be convicted and punished for the crime of illegal business in accordance with the provisions of Article 225 of the Criminal Law.

According to the regulations, as long as the business related to tobacco monopoly is operated without a license, it is enough to constitute the crime of illegal business operation.

So how to define the seriousness of the circumstances? Article 3 of the explanation goes on to stipulate:

The summary is as follows:

In addition, it is worth noting that the Summary of Symposium on Legal Issues in Handling Criminal Cases of Fake and Inferior Tobacco Products (hereinafter referred to as the Summary of Tobacco Symposium) has special provisions on the amount of unit crimes: production, wholesale and retail without the permission of the tobacco monopoly administration department.

II. Crime of Producing and Selling Fake and Inferior Products

According to the provisions of Article 1 of this Interpretation, those who produce and sell fake and inferior cigarettes, cigars and other tobacco monopoly products with a sales amount of more than 5, yuan shall be convicted and punished for the crime of producing and selling fake and inferior products in accordance with the provisions of Article 14 of the Criminal Law. According to the provisions of the criminal law, the relationship between the sales amount and the punishment is summarized as follows:

It is worth noting that Article 2 of this explanation has special provisions on the circumstances of the attempted sale of fake and inferior products: fake and inferior cigarettes, cigars and other tobacco monopoly products have not been sold, and the value of the goods has reached more than three times the threshold value of the sales amount stipulated in Article 14 of the Criminal Law, or the sales amount has not reached 5, yuan, but the total value with the unsold goods has reached more than 15, yuan, so it will be produced and produced. According to the provisions of the "Summary of the Symposium on Applicable Legal Issues in Handling Criminal Cases of Counterfeit and Inferior Tobacco Products".

if the amount of sales and the value of unsold goods reach different legal punishment ranges or both reach the same legal punishment range, a heavier punishment shall be given as appropriate within the legal punishment range with heavier punishment.

III. Crimes of infringing intellectual property rights

In addition, although most of the tobacco-related crimes are crimes of violating illegal business operations, the related crimes of infringing intellectual property rights cannot be ignored: according to the provisions of Article 1 of this Interpretation, most of the tobacco-related crimes of infringing intellectual property rights are trademark rights, which are summarized as follows:

In practice, sellers often defend themselves on the grounds that they don't know that cigarettes are counterfeit and cigarettes have not been sold, but in fact. In any of the following circumstances, it can be considered as "knowing":

1. Purchasing goods at a price significantly lower than the market price;

2. Selling at a price significantly lower than the market price;

3. After the tobacco products selling counterfeit registered trademarks for cigarettes are discovered, they transfer or destroy physical evidence or provide false certificates or false information;

4. Other circumstances that can be considered as knowing.

In addition, regarding the conviction of selling goods with counterfeit registered trademarks or selling registered trademarks illegally manufactured by others, there are explicit provisions in Articles 8 and 9 of the Opinions on Several Issues Concerning the Application of Laws in Handling Criminal Cases of Infringement of Intellectual Property Rights, which are summarized as follows:

IV. Coincidence of Crimes and Helping Behavior

There are countless crimes committed by the tobacco-related economic crime industry from upstream to downstream. Article 5 of this interpretation also clearly stipulates that if the perpetrator commits the crime of illegally producing and selling tobacco monopoly products, and at the same time constitutes the crime of producing and selling fake and inferior products, the crime of infringing intellectual property rights and the crime of illegal business operation, he shall be convicted and punished in accordance with the provisions of heavier punishment. Therefore, in practice, there is room for defense on the characterization of behavior, such as whether counterfeit brand cigarettes or inferior cigarettes are sold, which has great influence on charges and sentencing.