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Juul Labs, the giant electronic cigarette owned in part by Altria, today announced a new age verification system for outlets that would require all Juul retailers to comply with it. May 2021 here.
The Retail Access Control Standards Program, or RACS, enhances the standard for age-limited POS systems by automatically locking the POS every time a Juul product is scanned until it reaches the end of the day. A valid adult ID is scanned. The system also searches for bulk purchases (four packs of four-account Juul Pods is the legal limit for a single transaction) and locks on scanning the fifth Juul Pod package, automatically removing the fifth package from the customer's cart.
To date, more than 50 retail chains, representing 40,000 retail outlets, have committed to RACS, with 7,000 outlets and 15,000 implementing technology by end of 2019. The deadline to switch to the RACS system is May 2021. At this point, Juul will sell its products only to RACS-compliant retailers.
Recognizing that the renovation of a point of sale can be expensive and difficult, the company offers incentives of more than $ 100 million to passing retailers. For retailers with newer point-of-sale systems, the switch may require only a software update, while others must also update their hardware.
Now the system is not foolproof. After scanning an ID, all personal information is automatically deleted from the system. Thus, unauthorized bad actors / resellers could accumulate a significant amount of Juul products by going to several stores or returning several times to the same store.
However, this is probably only the beginning of the RACS program, which, for the first time, gives Juul much more control over how its products are evolving in the market, thus limiting the possibility for Juul's products to end up in the hands of minors.
Along with the introduction of RACS, Juul is also expanding the track & trace program being tested in April in the Houston area.
Track & Trace allows teachers, parents, law enforcement and responsible adults to record the serial number of confiscated Juul devices, providing Juul with the necessary information to track this device along the entire supply chain. identify the store where it was sold.
Using the secret purchase program of Juul, the company can then specifically target these stores and put an end to the illegal sale of Juul devices to minors.
Today, Track and Trace is expanding in the United States.
This is a major step in the fight against the use of juul products by minors, but the company itself admits that it is convinced that the number of young vapers will continue to increase.
From the exit:
We expect this year's survey to unfortunately show continued growth in youth use of steam-based products in the United States. If this happens, it will be partly because:
- When collecting this year's NYTS data, the T21 laws were passed in a dozen states but had not been implemented.
- Few or no class-wide actions have been undertaken while the FDA is finalizing its guidelines which, once implemented, should impose additional restrictions on the sale and marketing of certain products containing flavored steam – actions that we voluntarily imposed on ourselves last November.
In November 2018, Juul announced its youth prevention plan, in anticipation of the FDA crackdown on e-cig products. It included the prohibition of sales of flavored Juul pods in Juul convenience stores and other retailers, limiting the sale of tobacco-free, menthol-free pods to its online storefront. Juul says it accounted for 50% of his income at the time. The company also removed its Facebook and Instagram pages and reorganized its Twitter account to remove any promotional or marketing content from the platform.
Despite the many steps the company has taken to limit young people's use of the product, one of the biggest hurdles for Juul is the sale of counterfeit and counterfeit products, which may include dangerous and / or unknown chemicals. The company hired Adrian Punderson, a former Apple employee, to help take the lead in the fight against counterfeiting in February.
By December 2018, Juul would have been valued at $ 38 billion, which would represent more than 70% of the e-cig market.
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