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Recently, the report Remote Alcohol Sales was presented to the Dutch House of Representatives. This study was a follow-up to research conducted in 2020. In both studies, Dialogic was a subcontractor of Ecorys. Our part involved analysing around 100 websites that sell alcohol, coding whether and how the websites verify the age of their customers. Additionally, we looked into the accepted payment methods, delivery costs and times, and the general range of drinks offered on the websites. The entire study also included a survey to investigate how often Dutch citizens, especially young people/minors, order alcohol from Dutch and foreign websites and how often their age was verified.
Since the previous measurement in 2020, it has become mandatory for customers to confirm their age through an 'active action'. This was also reflected in the results: unlike in the baseline measurement, practically all Dutch websites now had some form of active age verification. Unfortunately, this often merely involves ticking a box confirming you are 18+, with little actual verification taking place in practice. One of the main conclusions of the research is that the revised Alcohol Act has proven to be ineffective in reducing online alcohol purchases by minors. Proposed measures to address this include: mandating a more reliable age verification system (e.g. iDIN), conducting test orders to check if stores also verify age at the door, and addressing alcohol advertising more effectively. The chamber letter and the report can be found here.
Want to know more about the research? Ask Melvin Hanswijk.