Underage sales

There are laws that restrict the sale of certain products (which includes both goods and services) to underage people.

This guide introduces you to these age-restricted products, and the minimum age of the young people you can legally sell them to.

You will also find essential information on what you can do to prevent the sale of age-restricted products to underage people and stay on the right side of the law.

Minimum legal age

There are many laws that deal with the sale of age-restricted products. For some products, such as alcohol, you are required to obtain a licence before you can legally sell them.

To help you to work out which laws you need to comply with, first check the table below to see if there are any products you sell or intend to sell that are age restricted and what the age restriction is.

Taking steps to prevent underage sales

If you sell age-restricted products to a person under the minimum legal age, you may commit an offence under the relevant law. The penalties can include a fine or even imprisonment. There are laws that give you a legal defence, which is often referred to as the 'due diligence' defence.

Basically, you must prove that you took 'all reasonable precautions / all reasonable steps' and exercised 'all due diligence' to avoid committing an offence.

This means that you are responsible for making sure that you and your staff do not sell age-restricted products to people under the minimum legal age. You can do this by setting up effective systems within your business.

These systems should be regularly monitored and updated (where necessary) to identify and put right any problems or weaknesses, and to keep pace with any advances in technology.

Key best-practice features of an effective system include:

• age verification checks. Verify the age of potential buyers by asking to see an identity card that bears the PASS hologram. The Proof of Age Standards Scheme (PASS) is the UK's national proof-of-age accreditation scheme, and is supported by the Home Office, the Scottish Government, the National Police Chiefs' Council, Police Scotland and the Chartered Trading Standards Institute (CTSI). The Scottish Government also endorses the Young Scot card
• Challenge 21 / Challenge 25. In England and Wales, you can participate - or must participate as a licensing condition if you sell alcohol - in a scheme to carry out age verification checks on anyone who looks younger than 21 or 25. When selling alcohol, tobacco or vapes in Scotland, it is a legal requirement to check the age of any customer who appears to be under 25
• staff training. Make sure your staff receive adequate training on underage sales. Keep a training record and make sure the training is regularly updated
• use of till prompts. You can use prompts that appear on the till when an age-restricted product is scanned, to remind staff to carry out age verification checks
• store layout, signage and CCTV. Keep your age-restricted products where they can be monitored by staff. For example, fireworks stored on the shop floor must by law be kept in a secure cabinet. Ensure you have adequate signs to inform consumers of the minimum legal age to purchase. You are legally required to display notices for tobacco and fireworks
• keep and maintain a refusals register. This means keeping a record (date, time, incident, description of potential buyer) where sales of age-restricted products have been refused. This helps to demonstrate that you actively refuse sales and have an effective system in place

You will find more information on effective 'due diligence' systems in the In-depth Guides on age-restricted products below.