Who has more at stake in solving this problem, Phillip Morris or the European Union? Why?

The European Union has much more at stake because smuggling and illicit activities cause them much more problems than it does for Phillip Morris. The more cigarettes are smuggles, the more work and money they have to spend on seizing illegal shipments of cigarettes. The smuggling of cigarettes does not hurt Phillip Morris very much because it means that more people are using their cigarettes, which only contributes to their business. The implementation of solutions like RFID technology would cost the company much more than they are willing to spend and would slow down production. This is something that they are very much against because the less they produce, the less money they will make. Phillip Morris has already had to raise prices of its cigarettes to accommodate the high costs of the advanced technology solutions it is considering. The higher the prices of the cigarettes are raised, the more customers may be turned off from buying their products and that is something Phillip Morris does not want. The company seems to find problems with every solution that is proposed and that is why little progress has been made in the months following the settlement. PMI has still not provided a first-purchase database and has provided little information about any improvements it has made in tracking and tracing its cigarettes.