Why Do You Need To Understand Underage Sales?

ECR Global Study on Self-checkout in Retail

As a retailer it is imperative to follow the rules and laws around age-restricted products and services. These laws restrict the sale of certain products and services to underage customers.

Below is a list of products and services with the corresponding age restrictions.

Adult fireworks and sparklers
18 and over

Aerosol paint
16 and over

Alcohol
18 and over

Betting, bingo, casino, racetracks
18 and over

Christmas crackers
12 and over

Crossbows
18 and over

Knives/axes/blades
18 and over

Knives (domestic Scotland only)
16 and over

Lighter refills containing butane
18 and over

Liqueur confectionery (Scotland only)
16 and over

Lottery tickets/instant win cards
16 and over

Nicotine inhaling/vapour products
18 and over

Party poppers
16 and over

Petrol
16 and over

Sunbeds
18 and over

Tobacco
18 and over

Video recordings U & PG
Unrestricted

Video recordings classification 12
12 and over

Video recordings classification 15
15 and over

Video recordings classification 18/R18
18 and over

Video games PEGI rating 3 & 7
Unrestricted

Video games PEGI rating 12
12 and over

Video games PEGI rating 16
16 and over

Video games PEGI rating 18
18 and over

If selling age-restricted products or services to a person under the minimum legal age it may be an offence under the relevant law. The penalties can include fines or even imprisonment. In these cases, a retailer must prove they took ‘all reasonable precautions/all reasonable steps’ and exercised ‘all due diligence’ to avoid committing the offence.

This basically means that the retailer is responsible for ensuring staff members do not sell age-restricted products to individuals under the relevant minimum legal age. There are a number of ways that this can be monitored and managed.

  • Age Verification Checks – If someone looks under age staff must verify their actual age with a passport, driving licence or identity card that bears the PASS hologram. PASS (the Proof of Age Standards Scheme) is the UKs national proof of age accreditation scheme.
  • Challenge 21/25 – This is a scheme the retailer must participate in as it is a licensing condition to sell alcohol. The retailer must carry out age verification checks on anyone who looks younger than 21 or 25. (In Scotland it is a legal requirement to check anyone that looks under 25).
  • Staff training – it is the retailer’s responsibility to ensure that staff are trained sufficiently on underage sales. A training record with regular updates should be provided for staff so there are no training gaps.
  • Till prompts – any age restricted product that is scanned should give a prompt on the till to confirm that the staff member serving the customer carries out the relevant age verification checks.
  • Store layout – age-restricted products should be stocked where they can be monitored on a regular basis. Fireworks that are kept on the shop floor must by law be kept in a secure cabinet. There should be clear indication to show customers the relevant legal age to purchase age-restricted products.

Finally it is worth keeping a refusals record that shows date, time, incident and description of the potential buyer when age-restricted products have been refused. This will help prove the retailer actively monitors age-restricted items and has an effective system in place.