Coupons for a Reduction in Price

016.01 Coupons may not reduce the selling price of cigarettes to below the retailer's cost as computed in Neb. Rev. Stat. § 59-1504. A retail store coupon is a coupon offered by a retailer by which the price of any container of cigarettes is reduced by presenting the coupon to the retailer who has issued it. A retail store coupon is in effect a discount by the store and reduces the selling price to the purchaser of the cigarettes. If the price is reduced below the retailer's cost by the coupon, then the coupon offer is prohibited. If the coupon is given by a retailer upon the purchase of cigarettes and later redeemed by the retailer, such redemption is a concession or rebate and is prohibited. 016.02 A manufacturer's coupon is a coupon offered by the manufacturer to the public by which the price of any container of cigarettes is reduced by presentation of the coupon. A manufacturer's coupon is a separately negotiable document. Price reduction stickers or coupons that are not redeemable by the participating retailer are prohibited. Such coupons which reduce the selling price of cigarettes below the retailer's cost or which are a rebate or concession for the purchase of the cigarettes are prohibited if such coupon is offered with the intent to injure competition among the retailers and wholesalers of this state. The manufacturer may overcome the presumption of intent to injure competition if the manufacturer fulfills the requirements of § 013 and shows that the coupon is redeemable by all retailers choosing to participate in the offer, that the manufacturer will give the same rebate or concession regardless from which retailer the cigarettes were obtained, and that the coupon will be invalid if used by the retailer in the retailer's advertising. 016.03 Any retailer participating in a buy-down promotion may use promotional signs and displays to advertise the value of a cigarette manufacturer's buy-down amount or the selling price of the cigarettes after allowance for the buy-down amount, provided the promotional signs and displays identify the full retail selling price prior to the buy-down amount. The promotional signs and displays must also state that the sales tax is computed on the full retail selling price prior to the allowance for the buy-down amount. Advertising the selling price net of the buy-down amount is permissible even when the buy-down amount reduces the sales price below the minimum retail selling price. 016.04 Retailers accepting a manufacturer's coupon as part of the selling price of a package of cigarettes must compute the applicable sales tax on the full selling price before deduction for the coupon. (Neb. Rev. Stat. §§ 59-1503 and 59-1514. March 21, 2022.)