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Guide to Selling Restricted Products to Underage Customers in the UK

Stopping underage sales is a legal obligation. Thus, retailers must learn how to handle age-restricted products. If you offer age-restricted products to someone under the legal age, you may be breaking the law’s Code of Practice for Regulatory Delivery. The consequences may range from a fine to imprisonment.  

This implies that you are responsible for ensuring that your organisation does not offer age-restricted products to people under the legal age. You may do this by implementing efficient business processes. These systems should be continually checked and updated as needed to detect and correct any faults or vulnerabilities and stay up to date with the latest changes. 

What products and services are age-restricted?

The government has identified the selling of restricted products to minors as a societal issue. These laws were put in place to protect the public, and when violated, it becomes a problem for the criminal justice system.  

When selling certain age-restricted items, retailers are obliged to show warnings and signs, and they are also obligated to ask young individuals for ID/proof of age. Penalties for selling age-limited items to minors vary based on the product and the circumstances of the sale, so be sure you understand which products and services are restricted in the UK. 

Among these products are:

  • Aerosol Spray Paints
  • Alcohol
  • Solvents and Cigarette Lighter Refills 
  • Air Weapons, Crossbows, etc
  • Fireworks
  • Knives and Bladed Items
  • Sunbeds
  • Tobacco and Nicotine-inhaling Products
  • Video Games, and Recording for Sale and Hire

Selling age-restricted products online

Selling age-restricted products online brings unique challenges. Retailers must take precautions to avoid selling to minors. This guide applies to any product that has a sales age restriction, such as:

  • Alcohol
  • Fireworks
  • Nicotine-inhaling Products (including e-cigarettes/vapes or refills)
  • Spray Paint
  • Tobacco
  • Video Recording and Games
Step 1. Checks for age verification  Ask to see an identity card bearing the PASS hologram to verify the age of potential buyers (the Proof of Age Standards Scheme (PASS) is the UK's national proof-of-age accreditation supported by the Home Office, the Chartered Trading Standards Institute) (CTSI) and the Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO). Step 2. Challenge 25  In England and Wales, you may - or must if you sell alcohol - engage in a programme to conduct age verification checks on anybody who seems to be under the age of 25. Step 3. Employee training Make certain that your team receives proper underage sales training. Maintain a training record and ensure that training is constantly updated. Step 4. Using till prompts  Prompts that show on the till when an under-age-restricted product is scanned may be used to remind workers to do age verification checks. Step 5. Store signs and CCTV Keep your age-restricted items in areas where employees can watch them.   Make sure you have enough signage to remind customers of the legal purchasing age. Tobacco and fireworks warnings are legally required to be displayed. Step 6. Keep and update a refusals register  This entails maintaining a record (date, time, incident, description of possible customer) of all refusals to sell age-restricted items. This helps to show that you actively decline sales and have a procedure in place.

Inform People's Guidance to Retailers Selling Products to Underage

Every time a store refuses to sell an age-restricted product, it is customarily recorded in the company’s refusal log. A rejection log is essential in dealing with laws since it demonstrates that the organisation complies with the law for age-restricted products. Furthermore, it serves as evidence if a government official seeks proof that you comply with the regulation and standard. 

Age-Restricted Sales Training

Your age-restricted sales training should include information on government, regional, local, and business rules in your location. Businesses must understand the penalties for selling to underage consumers and the regulations’ principles. 

Inform People could give training to your organisation to ensure that your employees are aware of underage sales and what checks must be performed. When your personnel are trained online on conducting age-restricted sales, you can be confident that everyone is getting the same information. A Virtual PA Management System that automates evaluations and tracking help free up managers’ time for on-the-job follow-up.  

Manage Restricted Products Inventory

To help avoid underage sales, you should keep up to date on new technologies. This means Virtual PA management software can help: 

  • You set up a system of control
  • You took due regard to the risks involved
  • You regularly check to make sure your system works
  • You can prove that you follow regulatory standard

Improve Business Process Automation

An efficient identity verification system helps assure compliance for organisations that provide age-restricted services or products via online channels. With digital identity verification (IDV), the consumer’s personally identifiable information (PII) data, such as name, address, and date of birth, is obtained with their consent, and the PII is then checked against data sources to see if the information matches — in other words, it is determined if the customer is indeed who they say they are.  

Adding numerous extra data points on top of PII increases confidence in that identification. These data points may contain email and phone contact information confirmed by two-factor authentication. The history and description of the contact information also give data points for additional investigation. 

Streamlined Point of Sale (POS) Process

Electronic Point of Sale systems (EPoS) or POS systems does not replace employee awareness of how to prevent underage sales. But a regular system audit will ensure they are programmed correctly to include all the age-restricted products on sale in the store. 

Virtual PA features are key to streamlining retail store point of sale; 

  • Audit checklists are only one piece of information you can use to track long-term development. Conduct audit checks to under-age restricted products, and obtain a complete view and report of your business
  • Compatibility with the cloud. Cloud compatibility is a useful feature if you have various business locations. It helps you to keep an eye on your organisation even if you are not physically there. This includes real-time reporting, updates, and analytics at a glance
  • When monitoring point-of-sale interactions to ensure that any underage sale restrictions and checks are followed, keep a record of the behaviour and make any corrective action, modifications, or additional training as needed

Contact us today if you're a retailer looking to make age checks more efficient