Seoul City Sees Increased Buyer Age Verification Rate, Effectively Blocking Illegal Sales
[Asia Economy Reporter Jo In-kyung] The rate of illegal cigarette sales to teenagers at convenience stores in Seoul has significantly dropped from the 48% range to 14% over the past six years.
Seoul City announced on the 25th that according to the 'Monitoring of Illegal Cigarette Sales to Teenagers at Convenience Stores,' the illegal sales rate decreased by 34.3 percentage points from 48.3% in 2015 to 14.0% in the first half of 2020.
To eradicate youth smoking, the city randomly selects 2,600 convenience stores by district and company twice a year and investigates whether age verification is conducted and whether cigarettes are sold to those under 19 through mystery shopping.
As a result, the illegal sales rate has significantly decreased from 48.3% in 2015 to 37.3% in 2016, 32.7% in 2017, 24.4% in 2018, and 17.9% in 2019.
The rate of 'no age verification of buyers' during cigarette sales also sharply declined from 47.6% in 2015 to 14.6% this year. This indicates that the rate of ID checks for buyers who appear to be teenagers at convenience stores has increased, which is analyzed to be effective in blocking illegal sales. In particular, Seoul City explained that when the age of teenage buyers was verified, 98.8% of convenience stores did not sell cigarettes, confirming that ID verification is a key factor in preventing illegal sales.
By district, Gwangjin-gu (1.9%), Gangdong-gu (2.0%), Geumcheon-gu (2.2%), and Jongno-gu (2.2%) recorded illegal sales rates below 3%, with all but one convenience store in the survey not selling cigarettes to teenagers. These districts also had buyer age non-verification rates below 3%.
Continuous self-purification efforts led by convenience store headquarters also influenced the reduction in illegal cigarette sales rates. Based on Seoul City's monitoring results, franchisee and seller education and management reinforcement promoted by each headquarters led to strengthened age verification in the field, and sellers' own efforts played a significant role in the continuous decrease of illegal sales rates, the city analyzed.
Beyond reducing illegal cigarette sales, the city is conducting practical discussions with convenience store headquarters and industry associations to regulate cigarette advertising inside retail stores to improve the harmful environment of youth smoking through surveys on cigarette advertising status at retail stores.
Based on this monitoring result, Seoul City plans to send correction notices to illegal sellers and convenience store headquarters and conduct continuous guidance and joint crackdowns in cooperation with districts and related organizations until the illegal cigarette sales rate to teenagers reaches zero.
Park Yu-mi, Director of the Seoul City Citizen Health Bureau, said, "The combination of Seoul City's youth illegal cigarette sales eradication project and the self-purification efforts of convenience store companies has drastically reduced the illegal sales rate," adding, "We will continue to implement detailed policies such as monitoring, guidance, and regulation of cigarette advertising inside retail stores, expand cooperation with related organizations, and work jointly with stakeholders to eradicate illegal cigarette sales to teenagers."
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