§245-62  Applicability.  (a)  Thischapter shall not apply to:

(1)  Cigarettes allowed to be imported or brought intothe United States for personal use free of federal tax or duty or voluntarilyabandoned to the United States Secretary of Treasury at the time of entry;

(2)  Cigarettes sold or intended to be sold asduty-free merchandise by a duty-free sales enterprise in accordance with theprovisions of section 1555(b) of Title 19, United States Code, and anyimplementing regulations; provided that this chapter shall apply to anycigarettes that are brought back into the customs territory for resale withinthe customs territory; or

(3)  A delivery service when engaged in the businessof transporting or delivering packages or other containers of cigarettes, ifthe delivery service is not a knowing accomplice in any act that circumventsthe requirements of this chapter.  The department and the attorney generalshall retain inspection and investigation authority under this chapter.  Thedelivery service shall provide the department or the attorney general withaccess to inspect any shipments of any cigarettes and shall provide anyinformation, including shipping and delivery documents, deemed necessary toverify compliance with the requirements of this chapter.

(b)  As used in this section:

"Delivery service" means an entity,including the United States Postal Service (as defined in section 102 of Title39, United States Code), that is engaged in the commercial transport ordelivery by water, land, or air of letters, packages, merchandise, or othercontainers whether or not the entity actually operates the vessel, vehicle, oraircraft by which the transportation is provided.

"Shipping documents" or"delivery documents" include but are not limited to bills of lading,air bills, or any other documents, records, or documentation in whateverformat, including electronic format used to evidence the undertaking by adelivery service to ship, transport, or deliver letters, packages, merchandise,or other containers. [L 2000, c 201, pt of §1; am L 2004, c 157, §6]