Age Collection & Verification
By: VinterActive LLC
Disclaimer
VinterActive LLC does not offer legal advice and strongly encourages anyone seeking an opinion on compliance matters to consult with a qualified attorney. The information provided here is intended only to help interested readers learn more about some of the significant issues facing wineries and wine retailers on the internet.
Summary
In the United States it is illegal for wineries or wine retailers to sell wine, deliver wine, or market wine to anyone under the age of 21. Other than on those facts, there is little widespread agreement on what methods, if any, online wine retailers must employ to restrict online sales and marketing to minors.
In the absence of uniform direction from state, local, federal or industry jurisdictions, individual wineries have resorted to a wide range of age collection and verification tactics from passively lax to aggressively conservative. Some wineries believe it’s the delivery company’s responsibility to collect an adult signature while others employ advanced age collection & verification techniques before allowing potential customers to even view their winery’s website.
Regardless of your approach, the legal and ethical ramifications of your business decision should be carefully considered and discussed with a qualified compliance specialist.
The VinterActive Solution
When you are ready, VinterActive can help you implement a complete range of age collection and verification methods for use in online sales, website access, and email marketing.
Our SecureWineShop™ ecommerce system includes a standard legal-age statement and the ability to require date-of-birth on all orders or just those to specified states. SecureWineShop™ may also be integrated with real-time age verification services provided by IDology and endorsed by WineAmerica.
Our winery websites are available with optional sentry pages that require date of birth and/or registration before allowing website access. Registration can be subject to age verification, if desired.
Our PreferencePro™ email marketing system is delivered with a standard legal-age checkbox and can easily be equipped with date-of-birth collection. Mailing data can be exported and subject to age verification or cross-referenced against do-not-mail lists.
Learning More
Wine Institute’s Advertising Code -- http://www.wineinstitute.org/programs/adcode/