Controversy
In 2000, it was reported that counterfeit Prince cigarettes were smuggled into Denmark. "Consumers have found that it tastes terrible" says Director Anders Friis, adding that the false cigarettes were probably produced in Eastern Europe and, in some cases, perhaps in China. The Copenhagen police investigated a case of 2.5 million smuggled cigarettes, revealed at the German-Danish border, stored in a Russian lorry officially loaded with charcoal. The idea was that the cigarettes would be handed over to a man at the Bella Center in Copenhagen, showed the investigation. A 56-year-old Danish man had been detained in custody. The police believed that pirate production took place in several Eastern European countries, and Hasse Jakobsen said it was "an increasing problem".[6][7]
In 2003, it was also reported that illegal cigarettes were also smuggled into Sweden. The tobacco was legally imported from China or the Balkans, then distributed via ports in the Black Sea to buyers located elsewhere. The owners of the illegal cigarette factories bought the tobacco and, using old equipment (in some cases Danish machines from the 1950s), cigarettes were produced. They were printed with the branding of Prince or Marlboro, a case of trademark infringement. Direct transport from China also occurs.[8]
In 2011, it was reported that BAT added additives into Prince cigarettes that made people addicted. A lawsuit followed, brought by ex-smoker Allan Lykke Jensen, which would settle whether BAT misled consumers by adding these additives, and by using false information from their own smoke testing devices.[9]
In 2011, reports came out that the Scandinavian Tobacco Company may have used tobacco waste in the Prince cigarettes until the 1990s, and which was admitted the former director of Scandinavian Tobacco Company, Claus Bagger, in the Eastern District Court. He was interrogated as a representative of Scandinavian Tobacco Company, under the lawsuit brought by ex-smoker Allan Lykke Jensen for using different additives and techniques to mislead the smokers of nicotine and tar prescription in the Prince cigarettes. One of these methods, according to critics, was the addition of reconstituted tobacco waste.[10]
In 2017, it was reported that illegal cartons of Prince cigarettes were openly sold online, often by criminal gangs. The main selling points were on Facebook and dba.dk. A carton typically cost between 250 and 300 Danish krone, making these cigarettes significantly cheaper than those in Danish stores where official Prince Red cartons cost 440 kr. The cigarettes are in any event illegal because no Danish tax is paid. But in a large part of the cigarettes there is something completely different from what was separated by the side of the package. Copyrights are typically produced at illegal factories in Eastern Europe and Asia. In Poland, the authorities often find illegal cigarettes, and in 2016, Polish police stormed illegal cigarette factories 30 times. Also at the Polish borders, 739 million cigarettes were confiscated in 2016. 186 times, the Polish authorities found Red Prince, which was produced in Germany for the Scandinavian market.[11][12]
