Customer and Account Validation Questions and Answers

Pursuant to Section 6 of Act No 65/2017 Coll. on the Protection of Health against the Harmful Effects of Addictive Substances, tobacco products, smoking aids, herbal products intended for smoking and electronic cigarettes may be sold by means of distance communication, provided that their sale to persons under 18 years of age is excluded; for this purpose, the seller of these products by means of distance communication must be equipped with a computer system that electronically uniquely verifies the age of the consumer. The seller shall verify at the time of the sale that the consumer purchasing the products is not under 18 years of age.

Age may be verified in the following ways, for example:

•  by means of a reduced copy of the identity card, in which all data other than the fact that it is an identity card (travel document) and the name, surname and date of birth of the holder are anonymised (the seller is obliged to ensure that it does not violate the provisions of Act No 101/2000 Coll., on the protection of personal data and on the amendment of certain acts)
• or by other credible and unambiguous means, such as verification of the identification data provided in the identity card by a third party (the buyer sends the seller a copy of the document with the signature verified at Czech point or by courier, when the verification clause shows who signed the document and what age he is).

 

The following methods of age verification, among others, should be considered insufficient:

•  an order can be placed by simply confirming the order or the data without verifying them, where the box 'I am over 18 years old' is ticked before the order is sent or the date of birth etc. is filled in, even though age verification by the transport service may follow on delivery of the parcel
  • warning the retailer, e.g. in an email communication, that if you have ordered any tobacco product, it was necessary to agree to be over 18 years of age and that otherwise you need to cancel the order
• verification of the buyer's age only at the time of receipt of the goods by the delivery service, unless the age has been verified in advance by an electronic age verification system.

Verification of age on delivery

The computerised system in place must ensure that the purchase of tobacco products is not allowed without a clear verification that the purchaser is over 18 years of age. The seller's obligation to ensure that the tobacco product is not sold to a person under 18 years of age continues at the time of handover. The handover is considered to be part of the sale (at the point of sale or by an employee of the transport company). The distance seller of tobacco products is therefore obliged to ensure that the goods are not taken over by a minor. If the takeover takes place on the premises, the seller must verify the age himself; if he uses postal/courier services to deliver the goods, he must fulfil this obligation vicariously

Source: Czech Agricultural and Food Inspection Authority.