In Switzerland, Valora announces a digital control system for the sale of tobacco to minors

The Valora retailer is expected to soon implement a digital control system in its 1,100 sales outlets designed to prevent the sale of tobacco, alcohol and gambling products to minors. The reliability of this system remains to be demonstrated, however, as Valora's business is closely linked to that of the tobacco and nicotine industry.

Valora's stated objective is clear: the digital control system for tobacco, alcohol and gambling sales that it intends to install is primarily designed to limit checkout times by reducing the workload of employees. This is therefore an intention that would be primarily commercial, even if the argument put forward refers to the legislation prohibiting the sale of these products to minors. The Valora group notably owns the k kiosk and Press & Books brands, which make up the mesh of its network of points of sale. In addition to its 1,100 points of sale in Switzerland, the group also has 1,600 spread across Germany, Austria, Luxembourg and the Netherlands.

A system based on scanning an identity document

In the system offered by Valora, the customer scans his official ID himself on the device, located at the checkouts. The salesperson is then supposed to check that the customer's photo matches the ID before making the sale. No personal data is stored in this device.

This initiative has been hailed as a step forward by the Addiction Switzerland Foundation, which is due to publish a study on mystery shopper visits in the autumn. test purchases »), in different types of points of sale, in the field of sales of tobacco and alcohol to minors[1].

However, there are several doubts surrounding this digital control system. It seems that no automatic procedure is provided to prevent the sale if the person is not of the required age, the acts of sale and control being left in fine at the discretion of the seller. It is also not specified whether the control system allows the authenticity of the identity document presented to be verified. Valora is here trying to shift the responsibility from the seller to the customers, by specifying that identity theft and the falsification of official documents are illegal and punishable by law.

Doubts about Valora's sincerity

Valora is a tobacco distributor and is therefore closely linked to the tobacco industry. For example, this company enabled the introduction of JUUL e-cigarettes in Switzerland in 2018.[2], of which Altria was a shareholder at the time. However, the history of age control systems proposed by tobacco manufacturers has shown that these devices were particularly ineffective with regard to cigarette vending machines.[3]. More recently, in the United States, the evaluation – financed by JUUL – of an automatic sales control system set up by JUUL noted, for example, up to at least 14 % of infractions in certain points of sale, a sign that a system proposed by a tobacco manufacturer can include more or less significant flaws.[4].

Caution is therefore still required when faced with a digital control system proposed by a tobacco industry player seeking to appear "socially responsible". This system will not be included in the evaluation of test purchases published in the autumn, so we will have to wait for a future mystery shopping campaign to measure its real effectiveness. The implementing guidelines for Article 5.3 of the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC), which Switzerland has not ratified, stipulate that this type of control be carried out by a structure independent of the tobacco industry.

Keywords: Switzerland, sale to minors, digital control, Valora.

M.F.

[1] Baumann J, Alcohol, tobacco: digital control, “a step forward” for Addiction Switzerland, 20 minutes, published on June 23, 2023, consulted the same day.

[2] American e-cigarette leader arrives in Switzerland, La Tribune de Genève, published on November 30, 2018, consulted on June 23, 2023.

[3] DiFranza JR, Savageau JA, Aisquith BF. Youth access to tobacco: the effects of age, gender, vending machine locks, and "it's the law" programs. Am J Public Health. 1996 Feb;86(2):221-4. doi: 10.2105/ajph.86.2.221.

[4] Chen T, Prakash S, Zion A, Joselow J, Shiffman S, Kasmer PD. Improving Retailer Compliance for Tobacco Purchases: Pilot Study Findings. Am J Health Behav. 2021 May 1;45(3):576-587. doi: 10.5993/AJHB.45.3.11.