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As a part of its targeted inspection activities, the Czech Agriculture and Food Inspection Authority (CAFIA) inspected Internet sellers of tobacco products and nicotine pouches (without tobacco content) to check whether they meet all conditions laid down by legislation as regards verification of the age of purchasers. Out of the total of 22 inspected e-shops, the inspectors found non-compliances with the obligations in 17 cases - they did not have an electronic system in place for unambiguous verification of the age of shoppers and thus allowed purchasing of tobacco products and nicotine pouches also by minors. CAFIA cooperated with under-age decoys during some inspections.

The most frequent deficiency was complete absence of any system for verification of the age of shoppers or lack of functionality of the system in place - e.g. age verification only at the point of sale or through a delivery service. Some operators also failed to comply with their registration obligation with the Ministry of Health. CAFIA inspectors ordered all non-compliant e-shops to remedy the deficiencies, which will be verified by follow-up inspections. At the same time, CAFIA initiated administrative proceedings with the inspected persons to impose fines.

Conditions for distant sale of tobacco products (e.g. via the Internet) are laid down by Act No. 65/2017 Coll., on the Protection of Health against the Harmful Effects of Addictive Substances. The Act clearly stipulates the requirement for electronic verification of the age of the purchaser. CAFIA regards following methods of verification as sufficient:

• Installation of a third-party age verification service,
• Banking identity,
• Machine processing of identity documents,
• Verification of the by an identity card when registering in person,
• Registration through a reduced copy of an ID card (non-personally identifiable and age-identifying data is anonymised),
• Other plausible and unambiguous means (e.g. a document certified by Czechpoint if it shows the person's identity and age, etc.).
• Other ways, e.g. ticking the box "I am 18 years old", etc. are not considered sufficient.

CAFIA also emphasises that verification of the age of shoppers is required in 2 steps, namely when buying online and when collecting from a mail order service (or when collecting in person). A guide summarising the obligations laid down by Act No. 65/2017 Coll. for sellers of tobacco products is available on the CAFIA website.

With regard to the completely unacceptable results of this inspection activity, CAFIA will continue to check this segment.

Article by: Pavel Kopřiva – CAFIA Spokesperson, +420 542 426 633 

14^th December 2023