Age verification in alcohol online sales and delivery: results from a mystery shopping study in Estonia

IF 2.2 Q2 PUBLIC, ENVIRONMENTAL & OCCUPATIONAL HEALTH

Public Health in Practice Pub Date : 2025-12-01 Epub Date: 2025-09-30 DOI:10.1016/j.puhip.2025.100656

Rainer Reile , Tiina Kuusik , Triin Mäll , Krista Tarlap , Anneli Sammel

{"title":"Age verification in alcohol online sales and delivery: results from a mystery shopping study in Estonia","authors":"Rainer Reile , Tiina Kuusik , Triin Mäll , Krista Tarlap , Anneli Sammel","doi":"10.1016/j.puhip.2025.100656","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<div><h3>Objectives</h3><div>As the current evidence on the adherence to age verification requirement in alcohol online sale and delivery is scarce and inconclusive, we studied the age verification rate of alcohol deliveries via courier and parcel machine services to evaluate the accessibility of alcohol to the minors in Estonia.</div></div><div><h3>Study design</h3><div>Experimental study.</div></div><div><h3>Methods</h3><div>We adapted the mystery shopping methodology to the context of alcohol distance sale in Estonia to study the age verification ratio defined as ID requests during alcohol distance sale deliveries via couriers and parcel machines. A stratified random sample of 110 test purchases was created based on mapping of alcohol vendors offering alcohol distance sales in Estonia. Test purchasers (n = 7) aged 18–19 years old were recruited for the study. In total, 91 test purchases were conducted in between August and September 2024. Descriptive statistics and prevalence ratio from crude and adjusted log-binomial regression models were used to compare the ID validation by key test purchase characteristics.</div></div><div><h3>Results</h3><div>In total, 81.3 % of orders were delivered without ID validation. Although crude proportions of ID validation at the delivery varied for several test purchase characteristics, statistically significantly (p = 0.038) difference was only found for the delivery method. Courier deliveries had substantially lower age verification rate with 87.5 % of orders delivered without ID validation compared to 66.7 % in parcel machine deliveries. After adjustment to other test purchase characteristics, the corresponding prevalence ratio was 1.36 (95 % CI 1.02–1.82).</div></div><div><h3>Conclusions</h3><div>The findings indicate that online alcohol sales are accompanied with inconsistent and ineffective age verification practices that may increase alcohol availability to minors. The study highlights the need for stricter regulations and enforcement to prevent minors from accessing alcohol through online sales and delivery services.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":34141,"journal":{"name":"Public Health in Practice","volume":"10 ","pages":"Article 100656"},"PeriodicalIF":2.2000,"publicationDate":"2025-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Public Health in Practice","FirstCategoryId":"1085","ListUrlMain":"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2666535225000758","RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":null,"ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"2025/9/30 0:00:00","PubModel":"Epub","JCR":"Q2","JCRName":"PUBLIC, ENVIRONMENTAL & OCCUPATIONAL HEALTH","Score":null,"Total":0}

引用次数: 0

Abstract

Objectives

As the current evidence on the adherence to age verification requirement in alcohol online sale and delivery is scarce and inconclusive, we studied the age verification rate of alcohol deliveries via courier and parcel machine services to evaluate the accessibility of alcohol to the minors in Estonia.

Study design

Experimental study.

Methods

We adapted the mystery shopping methodology to the context of alcohol distance sale in Estonia to study the age verification ratio defined as ID requests during alcohol distance sale deliveries via couriers and parcel machines. A stratified random sample of 110 test purchases was created based on mapping of alcohol vendors offering alcohol distance sales in Estonia. Test purchasers (n = 7) aged 18–19 years old were recruited for the study. In total, 91 test purchases were conducted in between August and September 2024. Descriptive statistics and prevalence ratio from crude and adjusted log-binomial regression models were used to compare the ID validation by key test purchase characteristics.

Results

In total, 81.3 % of orders were delivered without ID validation. Although crude proportions of ID validation at the delivery varied for several test purchase characteristics, statistically significantly (p = 0.038) difference was only found for the delivery method. Courier deliveries had substantially lower age verification rate with 87.5 % of orders delivered without ID validation compared to 66.7 % in parcel machine deliveries. After adjustment to other test purchase characteristics, the corresponding prevalence ratio was 1.36 (95 % CI 1.02–1.82).

Conclusions

The findings indicate that online alcohol sales are accompanied with inconsistent and ineffective age verification practices that may increase alcohol availability to minors. The study highlights the need for stricter regulations and enforcement to prevent minors from accessing alcohol through online sales and delivery services.

查看原文本刊更多论文

酒精在线销售和配送中的年龄验证：爱沙尼亚神秘购物研究的结果

由于目前关于酒精在线销售和配送中遵守年龄验证要求的证据很少且不确定，我们研究了通过快递和包裹机服务的酒精配送的年龄验证率，以评估爱沙尼亚未成年人获得酒精的可能性。研究设计：实验研究。方法将神秘购物方法应用于爱沙尼亚酒类远程销售的背景下，研究通过快递员和包裹机进行酒类远程销售交付时的年龄验证比率（定义为ID请求）。根据爱沙尼亚提供酒类远程销售的酒类供应商的地图，创建了110个测试购买的分层随机样本。测试购买者（n = 7）年龄在18-19岁。在2024年8月到9月之间总共进行了91次测试采购。采用粗糙和调整后的对数二项回归模型的描述性统计和患病率来比较关键测试购买特征的ID验证。结果81.3 %的订单在未验证ID的情况下发货。虽然交付时ID验证的粗比例在几个测试购买特征中有所不同，但仅在交付方法中发现了统计学上显著（p = 0.038）的差异。快递投递的年龄验证率要低得多，没有身份验证的订单中有87.5% %，而包裹机器投递的订单中有66.7% %。调整其他测试购买特征后，相应的患病率为1.36（95 % CI 1.02-1.82）。研究结果表明，在线酒精销售伴随着不一致和无效的年龄验证实践，这可能会增加未成年人获得酒精的机会。该研究强调需要更严格的法规和执法，以防止未成年人通过在线销售和送货服务获得酒精。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

求助全文

约1分钟内获得全文求助全文

来源期刊