The Ministry of Economy has put forward a proposal for amendments to the Trade Act which further regulates the sale of alcohol. In addition to the previously announced possibility for cities and municipalities to restrict nighttime sales of alcoholic beverages in stores, the biggest novelty concerns online purchases: retailers will have to verify the age of customers through automated reading of identification documents.
According to the proposed law, when selling alcoholic beverages online, the retailer will be required to implement a technical solution that allows for age verification by reading the machine-readable zone of the identification document. If the customer refuses such verification, the retailer will have to deny the sale.
This would significantly change the practice that has so far prevailed in online commerce. In most online stores and delivery applications, age confirmation was reduced to marking that the customer is over 18 years old, while the actual verification was often deferred to the moment of delivery. Lider has already written about the problems of implementing such a system, warning that couriers from delivery platforms like Wolt and Glovo often become the last checkpoint for verifying the age of alcohol customers.
The proposed law states that such a model is not sufficiently effective as it allows minors relatively easy access to alcohol. Therefore, the Ministry proposes technical age verification already at the stage of online purchase.
Digital Identity Verification
The change could also affect delivery platforms like Wolt or Glovo that mediate in the sale of alcohol from stores and restaurants. Although the law formally places the obligation on the retailer selling goods online, in practice, the purchasing process takes place precisely through the applications of these platforms, so they will have to enable a digital identity verification system for retailers to legally sell alcohol.
In addition to stricter control of sales to minors, the law also provides additional rules for the sale of alcohol through automated, or self-checkout cash registers. The seller will also have to deny the sale if they assess that the customer is not of legal age, and the customer cannot prove this with an identification document.
If these rules are not adhered to, legal entities could be fined between €5,000 and €39,810.
In addition to online sales, the amendments to the law also bring the previously announced restriction on the sale of alcohol during the night. Representative bodies of local self-government units will be able to decide to limit the sale of alcoholic beverages in stores between 9 PM and 6 AM. Such a measure can be introduced if it is, as stated in the proposal, in the interest of protecting public health, public order and peace, the environment, or cultural heritage.
High Level of Consumption Among Youth
The Ministry justifies the amendments with public health reasons. According to data from the World Health Organization, alcohol is responsible for about three million deaths annually, or about 5.3 percent of all deaths worldwide. In Croatia, it is estimated that there are about 250,000 people dependent on alcohol, while about 11 percent of adults consume alcohol in risky amounts.
Particularly concerning is the consumption among youth. According to the results of the European ESPAD survey, about 90 percent of students in Croatia have consumed alcohol at least once in their lives, while 78.5 percent have drunk in the last year. In the last 30 days, more than half of the students, 55.6 percent, have consumed alcohol, and 42 percent reported that they had consumed five or more drinks on one occasion during that period. According to international comparisons, Croatia ranks among the EU countries with the highest level of alcohol consumption among youth.
The proposed law is currently in the public consultation phase, after which it should be sent for further legislative procedure. If adopted in its proposed form, online alcohol purchases in Croatia could soon require digital ID verification.
