Advice from Trading Standards when serving customers wearing face masks or face coverings who wish to purchase an age-restricted product in store, retailers should consider the following:

Retailers should continue to enforce Challenge 25 policies.

Where the retailer can’t confidently assess the age of a customer they should refuse the sale.

Where the retailer or staff member believes that the customer is younger than 25, proof of age should be requested.

The retailer should try and verify the customer in their mask or face covering. Where they cannot confidently verify the age, they should request the mask or face covering is briefly removed. If the customer is unwilling to do this, the sale should be refused.

This important clarification from Trading Standards and this best practice advice will help retailers navigate the sale of age-restricted products in light of the ongoing situation with the Corona virus outbreak.