A government-backed undercover survey showed that 26.9 percent of tobacco retailers did not check ID cards for buyers in school uniforms, the Health Promotion Administration (HPA) said yesterday.
The Consumers’ Foundation from May to November last year conducted its annual inspection by sending 20-year-old volunteers in high-school uniforms to buy cigarettes at 854 retailers across the nation, HPA officials told a news conference in Taipei.
Revisions to the Tobacco Hazards Prevention Act (菸害防制法) promulgated in March 2023 stipulate that only people who are 20 or older can legally buy cigarettes or other tobacco products.
Photo: CNA
Officials said that 38.6 percent of betel nut vendors, 26.9 percent of general stores, 23.4 percent of franchised supermarkets and hypermarkets, and 21.5 percent of franchised convenience stores failed to check buyer ID.
Compared with similar research in 2023, compliance with tobacco buyer ID laws was up 1.4 points for franchised convenience stores, but down 4.3 points for supermarket and hypermarket franchises, they said.
Noncompliance decreased 4.6 percent for betel nut vendors and 5.7 percent for general stores over the same period, they said.
Last year’s study showed that of the nation’s four major convenience store chains, 33.9 percent of Hi-Life outlets, 33.3 percent of OK Mart branches, 12.1 percent of FamilyMart stores and 16.7 percent of 7-Elevens failed to comply with buyer ID laws.
Among supermarkets, 40 percent of Carrefours, 35 percent of Showba outlets, 23.7 percent of PX Marts and 12.7 percent of Simple Mart stores did not check the age of the test buyers, they said.
The nation’s retailers were insufficiently vigilant in ensuring that clerks know and follow the law, foundation secretary-general Chen Ya-ping (陳雅萍) said.
Although the noncompliance figure for last year was down from 33.2 percent in 2021, 15 percent of the clerks interviewed reported not knowing that the smoking age had been raised to 20 years, Chen said.
High turnover in venues and inadequate employee training appeared to be the main cause of the failure to check IDs, she added.
Last year, retailers were fined a combined NT$1.15 million (USD$34,846) for 134 tobacco buyer ID citations, HPA Deputy Director-General Chia Shu-li (賈淑麗) said.
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