Quebec: Tobacco retail chain convicted for illegal sale of tobacco to a minor

On March 31, 2020, The Superior Court of Quebec rejected the appeal by the tobacco retail chain, convenience stores Late Night, for a conviction of selling tobacco to a minor in a store in Granby, Quebec. The tobacco retailer company was found guilty of such a sale prohibited by theArticle 13 of the Anti-smoking law in Quebec. An employee in one of the chain's stores agreed to sell to a minor, a 16-year-old assistant inspector mandated by the Ministry of Health and Social Services to do so — without first verifying her age. The judges, at first instance, had already condemned the chain of retailers (called convenience stores in Quebec) considering that in addition to the employee, the legal entity should also be held responsible for non-compliance with the law. Noting that the offence had been committed and that the terms of systematic verification of the customer's age had not been respected, the salesperson's belief that the customer appeared to be of age could not be upheld and the employee's supervision was deemed deficient. The appeal was also dismissed. As in France, any person wishing to purchase tobacco is required to prove that they are of age upon request by the operator of the store or an employee of the store. This proof must be provided by means of an official photo ID. Any tobacco retailer, whoever they may be, must refuse to sell tobacco to a person if the latter is a minor or when they consider that the identity document presented by this person does not prove their identity. The legal ban on the sale of tobacco to minors has existed since 1998 in Quebec and 2003 in France. Initially prohibited to those under 16 in France, it was extended to all minors from 2009. The comparative evolution of the effectiveness of the measure according to France and Quebec is very instructive. The level of compliance in Quebec was initially poor and too low to have an effectiveness on the prevalence of young people with only 37% of tobacco retailers respecting this ban in 2003. France reported even worse results with an effectiveness of the measure among those under 16 in 2006 of only 26%[1] . A new assessment carried out in 2011[2] reported still very poor results in France with only 15% tobacconists refusing to sell to minors under 17. These results were confirmed by other studies carried out among adolescent smokers indicating that they bought their supplies in 94% of cases from tobacconists. A new evaluation carried out in 2019[3] from a representative sample of tobacco shops once again warned of the lack of application of the measure in France: among 17-year-old adolescent smokers, compliance with the law by tobacconists in France was only 7%. By comparison, the compliance rate in Quebec is now 93%. Quebec has achieved this level of effectiveness thanks to the checks carried out in tobacco shops[4]. Similarly, this decision by the Quebec judicial authorities underlines the importance of the sanction in the event of an offence and the responsibility of the seller as well as that of the tobacco store as a legal entity. ©Tobacco Free Generation

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[1] LH2 survey for the CNCT, carried out among a representative sample of tobacconists from 400 points of sale from January 31, 2006 to February 18, 2006 [2] https://cnct.fr/communiques/interdiction-de-vente-de-tabac-aux-mineurs-le-cnct-interpelle-letat/ [3] https://cnct.fr/actualites/linterdiction-de-vente-de-tabac-aux-mineurs-une-mesure-largement-inappliquee/ [4] Xavier Elharrar et al. “Prohibition of tobacco sales to minors in France and Quebec: comparison of the legislative framework, its application, and adolescent smoking” ©National Committee Against Smoking |