Age Verification and Online Sales of Little Cigars and Cigarillos to Minors

Abstract

In our cross-sectional study, we aimed to determine age verification and sales of little cigars and cigarillos (LCCs) online to underage teens. We selected 100 popular Internet Little Cigar and Cigarillo Vendors (ILVs) for order attempts. From August to December 2015, we supervised 14 teens 14-17 years old making order attempts for LCCs. Of the 91 valid orders attempted, we received 89. For the valid orders attempted, 9.9% of ILVs used no age verification strategies at all, 84.6% used less effective forms of age verification, and 50.5% used more effective ones. Only one order was blocked during the order attempt and only one attempt was made to verify age at delivery. Most (79.8%) deliveries were left at the door and only 2 order attempts were rejected because of age verification strategies, resulting in a successful or valid buy rate of 97.8%. Our study demonstrated that ILVs selling LCCs were not making adequate efforts to verify the age of their customers, at the point-of-sale or point-of-delivery, facilitating easy access by minors. Few ILVs utilized age verification strategies that prevented online sales of LCCs to underage teens.