In short and in plain language
This article is for shops that ship wine, spirits, tobacco or e-cigarettes. It explains the rules that protect young people.
A click on an age button is only what the customer says. The article shows how a shop can really check age.
The check sits on each product, not on the whole shop. It takes place at checkout and on delivery.
Gifts for other people are a topic too. The article explains what to watch for then.
We build shops where each product carries an age marker.
A wine merchant ships a case of Riesling, a vape shop a parcel of liquids, a distillery a gift hamper with fruit brandy. All three show the same button before the first page loads: “I am of legal age”. A click on it, however, is only a statement by the customer. The German Youth Protection Act (Jugendschutzgesetz, JuSchG) is concerned with something else — with the handover of the goods and, for mail order, with precautions ensuring that nothing is shipped to children and adolescents. This concerns wine and drinks merchants, distilleries, delicatessens and specialist tobacco and vape retailers, often businesses that have added mail order alongside a bricks-and-mortar shop with its own website. This article explains what the Act provides for alcohol, tobacco and e-cigarettes, why the check should start with the individual product rather than the whole shop, where in the order process the checks take place and what applies to mixed baskets and gift orders to third parties. There is still time to set this up calmly before the gift season in the fourth quarter.
Key points at a glance
- Beer, wine and sparkling wine must not be supplied to children and adolescents under 16 (Section 9(1) no. 1 JuSchG), and other alcoholic beverages not to minors at all (Section 9(1) no. 2 JuSchG).
- For tobacco products and nicotine-containing products, the Act expressly prohibits offering and supplying them to minors by mail order (Section 10(3) JuSchG); the same applies to nicotine-free e-cigarettes and their containers (Section 10(4) JuSchG).
- An age query by click is a statement by the customer. The check only becomes reliable with a method that actually establishes the age and a handover to the verified person only.
- The age marker belongs on the individual product, not on the whole shop: three levels — none, 16, 18 — and the basket takes on the highest level of its products.
- For gift orders, what counts is the person who accepts the parcel at the door. The shop therefore also checks the recipient, not just the person placing the order.
- Supplying minors negligently is also an administrative offence; fines can reach 50,000 euros (Section 28(5) JuSchG). What gets documented is the result of the check, not the ID card.
What the Youth Protection Act says about mail order
The Youth Protection Act works with two age groups. Children are persons who are not yet 14 years old (Section 1(1) no. 1 JuSchG); adolescents are persons who are 14 but not yet 18 years old (Section 1(1) no. 2 JuSchG). Where the Act speaks of “children and adolescents”, it therefore means all minors. The supply bans for alcohol build on this: beer, wine, wine-like beverages and sparkling wine, as well as mixtures of these with non-alcoholic drinks, must not be supplied to children and adolescents under 16 (Section 9(1) no. 1 JuSchG). Other alcoholic beverages — spirits, fruit brandies, liqueurs — and foods containing such beverages in more than insignificant quantities must not be supplied to children and adolescents at all (Section 9(1) no. 2 JuSchG).
For mail order, the decisive provision is Section 10(3) JuSchG: tobacco products and other nicotine-containing products and their containers must neither be offered to children and adolescents by mail order nor supplied to them by way of mail order. Section 10(4) JuSchG extends this to nicotine-free products such as electronic cigarettes and electronic shishas, including their containers. The Act defines mail order itself (Section 1(4) JuSchG): any transaction for payment carried out by ordering and sending goods without personal contact between supplier and customer — or without technical or other precautions ensuring that nothing is shipped to children and adolescents. The definition thus names the lever an online shop can pull: the precaution. In this sense, an age check is not an extra for cautious retailers but the part of the shop the Act looks at.
Explicit for tobacco, via the supply rule for alcohol
Two age levels, one marker per product
The most common mistake is not in the check but before it: the shop does not know which product has which limit. Many shops solve this with a gate page for the entire site. That is both too much and too little — too much for the customer who only wants olive oil or a set of glasses, and too little for the shop, because a click on “I am 18” establishes nothing. The more robust approach starts with the individual product. Every product gets an age marker with exactly three values: no restriction, 16, 18. The value follows the product group, not gut feeling: wine, sparkling wine and beer are set to 16; spirits, liqueurs, spirit-based mixed drinks, tobacco products, nicotine-containing liquids, e-cigarettes and e-shishas to 18.
Two special cases deserve their own line in the product catalogue. Foods containing other alcoholic beverages in more than insignificant quantities sit next to spirits in the Act — chocolates filled with brandy or fruit preserved in rum, for example. The Act does not express the “more than insignificant” threshold in figures; if in doubt, classify higher. And sweet alcoholic drinks within the meaning of the Alcopop Tax Act may only be placed on the market commercially with the notice “Abgabe an Personen unter 18 Jahren verboten, § 9 Jugendschutzgesetz” (supply to persons under 18 prohibited) (Section 9(4) JuSchG). Whether this notice also belongs on the product page is a question for legal advice; showing it there costs one text field. Anyone who already maintains mandatory information per product knows the pattern from the product safety details under the GPSR: one field, one rule, one block when the value is missing.
Three values, no free text
The marker is a selection with three values. A free-text field for the age produces spellings that no rule at checkout can read reliably any more.
Sets inherit the highest level
A gift hamper with wine and fruit brandy is set to 18. The level of a set is calculated from its components, not set by hand and not forgotten.
Rule on import
When products arrive via an interface or a spreadsheet, a mapping by product group sets the marker. Products without a value stay unpublished until someone decides.
| Product group | Level in the shop | Legal basis |
|---|---|---|
| Beer, wine, sparkling wine and mixtures of these with non-alcoholic drinks | 16 | Section 9(1) no. 1 JuSchG |
| Spirits, fruit brandies, liqueurs | 18 | Section 9(1) no. 2 JuSchG |
| Foods containing spirits in more than insignificant quantities | 18 | Section 9(1) no. 2 JuSchG |
| Sweet alcoholic drinks (alcopops) | 18, with warning notice | Section 9(4) JuSchG |
| Tobacco products and nicotine-containing liquids | 18 | Section 10(3) JuSchG |
| E-cigarettes and e-shishas, including nicotine-free ones | 18 | Section 10(4) JuSchG |
| Glasses, decanters, non-alcoholic delicatessen | none | no supply restriction |
Checks before purchase
The first check sits in the order process, precisely where the basket first contains a product at level 16 or 18 — not on the home page. Someone buying only glasses notices nothing of the age check. Someone who puts a bottle of fruit brandy in the basket sees an additional step at checkout that explains in one sentence why it is there. This is also a question of the abandonment rate: an unexplained mandatory step shortly before payment is exactly the kind of friction at which customers drop out. How to keep the flow lean at this point is shown in our article on cart abandonment at checkout.
Which method runs there determines how much it proves. The range goes from a mere confirmation to identification with an ID document. The Act does not prescribe a specific method. For shipping tobacco and e-cigarettes it relies on precautions ensuring that nothing is shipped to children and adolescents, and traders must check a person’s age in cases of doubt (Section 2(2) JuSchG). In mail order, the shop does not see its customer. Whether that makes doubt the rule is assessed differently; the cautious approach treats every order at level 18 as if there were doubt. The payment method does not replace a check either: an account or a card says nothing about who is sitting in front of the screen. Which payment methods suit a shop otherwise is summarised in the overview of payment methods for online shops.
| Method | What it establishes | Use in the shop |
|---|---|---|
| Clicking “I am 18” | Nothing — a statement by the customer | Notice, not a check |
| Entering a date of birth | A statement that nobody verifies | Notice, not a check |
| Online ID function of the German identity card | Whether the age limit has been reached, read from the chip and without a copy | Levels 16 and 18 before purchase |
| Matching against credit agency data | Whether an adult is known at that name and address — not who is ordering | Levels 16 and 18, together with the check on delivery |
| Video identification | Person and ID document in a live call | Customer accounts with repeat purchases |
| Check on delivery | Age of the person accepting the parcel | Complement to every method before purchase |
Checks on delivery
Every method before purchase checks the person placing the order. The parcel, however, may be accepted by someone else: a child opening the door, a neighbour, a parcel locker. The handover is the moment at which the goods actually change hands, and therefore the moment at which supply to a minor happens or does not. That is why every level 18 product needs a delivery option in which the courier checks the age and hands the parcel only to the entitled person. Parcel carriers offer delivery options for this, for example with a visual age check or with personal handover to the named recipient. Which of these fits which product is a setting in the shipping rule, not a decision at the packing table.
In the shop, this means: the customer does not choose the shipping method, the basket sets it. If it contains a level 18 product, only the delivery option with an age check remains; parcel lockers, safe-place drops and delivery to neighbours drop out of the selection. This costs a surcharge per parcel from the carrier, which the shop either builds into its prices or shows as a shipping surcharge. Stating this openly at checkout saves queries and avoids customers seeing the higher shipping costs only at the last step. For level 16 the same rule can be applied with the age limit 16; a second, diverging delivery logic often creates more errors than it saves in shipping costs. In the online shops we set up, this requirement is a rule on the shipping method, not manual work in the warehouse.
The gate page is not a check
- Read the product marker: does the basket contain a product at level 16 or 18? If not, checkout runs without an extra step.
- Determine the highest level: the level of the basket is the highest level of its products, including sets and gift hampers.
- Trigger the method before purchase: the result is stored on the customer account or the order, not the ID document.
- Set the delivery option: for level 18 only delivery with an age check remains; parcel lockers and safe-place drops are removed.
- Record the handover: the delivery confirmation with age check is assigned to the order and kept.
Mixed baskets and split shipments
A delicatessen shop sells pasta, olive oil and a grappa. If a customer puts all three in the basket, level 18 applies to the entire order — at least as long as everything travels in one parcel. This is the simplest rule and in many cases the right one: one parcel, one level, one delivery option. It does have a side effect, though. The surcharge for delivery with an age check then also applies to the olive oil, and the pasta can no longer be dropped at a parcel locker.
If you want to avoid this, split the shipment: products without a restriction go as a normal parcel, the products at level 16 or 18 separately with an age check. That is fair to the customer but more work in the warehouse and in invoicing — two tracking numbers, two shipping confirmations and, with a return, the question of which part comes back. Which option fits depends on the range: a wine merchant with mostly level 16 products usually does better with the simple rule, a delicatessen with a few bottles among many dry goods rather with splitting. What matters is that the rule lives in the system and not in the head of the person at the packing table. How split shipments affect returns is described in our article on returns in online shops.
- The highest age level of all products, including the components of sets and gift hampers
- Whether the order is split and which part gets which delivery option
- Whether the method before purchase has been completed and with what result
- Whether the delivery address differs from the billing address
- Whether a parcel locker or safe-place drop has been selected that is excluded for the level
- Whether a surprise box or a voucher hides the level of the goods actually delivered
Gift orders to third parties
In the gift season before Christmas, one type of order gains weight that puts the age check under the most pressure: the gift order. The person ordering is an adult and has been checked, the parcel goes to a different address — to parents, to customers, to employees or to a godparent. Whether the recipient is of age is something the shop does not know at that moment. Because the supply takes place at the door, it is the age of the person accepting the parcel that counts, not that of the person ordering. The check before purchase therefore does not cover the gift case; the check on delivery does. The rest of the plan for these weeks is in our article on the Christmas season in online shops.
Three building blocks have proven useful for gift orders. First, a mandatory field at checkout as soon as the delivery address differs: the person ordering gives the recipient’s full name, because without a name the courier cannot hand the parcel to the right person. Second, a delivery option that hands the parcel to exactly this person and checks their age. Third, a clear notice for the case that no entitled person is found: depending on the delivery option, the parcel waits at a branch for collection with ID or goes back to the shop, not to the neighbour. Business customers who send gift hampers to their own clients need the same logic in bulk orders; how to separate such customers cleanly is shown in our article on B2B customer groups and net prices.
Recipient by name
If the delivery address differs, the recipient’s name becomes a mandatory field. Delivery with an age check needs a person, not just an address.
Advance notice for the buyer
The shipping confirmation mentions the age check on handover. The person ordering can then let the recipient know to have their ID ready.
No safe-place drop
Safe-place drop, neighbour and parcel locker drop out of the selection for level 18. The shop hides them instead of having to cancel an order later.
What the shop should document
Under Section 28(1) JuSchG, an organiser or trader who intentionally or negligently breaches the supply bans commits an administrative offence — for alcohol under no. 10, for tobacco, nicotine-containing products and e-cigarettes by mail order under no. 13. In these cases the fine can reach 50,000 euros (Section 28(5) JuSchG). The decisive word is negligently: it is enough that the required care was lacking. The question in an actual case is therefore which precautions were in place — and that can only be answered if the shop can prove them.
What gets documented is the result, not the person. The order should carry the level of the basket, the method before purchase, its result and the time, plus the chosen delivery option and the carrier’s delivery confirmation. An ID copy does not belong there. It is generally not needed for the age check, and anyone who does make one may only copy the German identity card with the holder’s consent and only in such a way that the copy is clearly and permanently recognisable as a copy (Section 20(2) PAuswG); general data protection law continues to apply alongside. Less data here is not a sacrifice but better documentation: a stored “checked, level reached, method, date” proves the precaution without the shop having to manage a collection of ID images. What the privacy policy should say about this is summarised in our GDPR checklist for websites.
Next to the fine stands the cease-and-desist letter
How to put age checks into your shop
The work starts with a count, not with an extension. How many products does the shop carry, how many of them are level 16, how many level 18, and which sets contain mixed components? This list is derived from the product groups and reviewed once by hand. Then the product catalogue gets the marker with three values, the import a mapping rule and publishing a block for products without a value. Only then come the step at checkout, the shipping rule and the record on the order. In a shop based on Shopware CE, this can be mapped with product properties, rules and shipping methods without rewriting the order process.
For a live shop this order pays off in particular: marker and shipping rule take effect immediately, the method before purchase can follow. If you sell abroad, also clarify which age limits and shipping rules apply in the destination country; our article on selling to EU consumers covers the tax side, while youth protection in the destination country is a separate question. We implement age marker, checkout step and shipping rule in online shops with age checks and look after ongoing maintenance as part of our website care. For retailers with a physical shop and mail order, the combination of branch and webshop we build as websites for retail is often a good fit. We are happy to discuss the state of your product catalogue via an enquiry about age checks in your shop.
Sources and legal references
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