Breakthrough possible in age validation tobacco sales

BREDA, Netherlands and HULLHORST, Germany, Feb. 13, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- Wurlitzer is going to produce tobacco vending machines that are equipped with the highly effective age validation system, Ageviewers. The announcement is made in response to a publication by the Dutch Trimbos Institute yesterday, showing that Dutch children can still buy tobacco shockingly easy. In the Netherlands, there are more than 10,000 outdated tobacco vending machines from which hundreds of thousands packs of cigarettes are sold annually to people under the legal age limit. With the new vending machines, this will no longer be possible.

Sales ban
The sale of tobacco to young people through vending machines has been a big problem for decades. Technical aids such as the Age Coin or - Key are very easy to circumvent by both the buyers and sellers of tobacco. The margin on tobacco is so thin that in many cases no effective age validation system can be paid for. Because of the persistent problems, more and more countries have chosen a total ban on tobacco vending machines, such as recently in the UK, Finland and Israel.

Machine sales
Wurlitzer and Ageviewers jointly declare: "In light of the Dutch government campaign to reduce both alcohol and tobacco use by minors it is obvious that the outdated tobacco vending machine network in the hospitality industry can no longer be maintained. Also, the age validation problems at the regular sale of tobacco continue to pile up. Cashiers, for example, are increasingly suffering from aggression. With the new vending machines equipped with Ageviewers, the tobacco branch has two systems available that will prevent sales to minors. As with the regular version of Ageviewers at check outs, these new machines release sales personnel from the verification job and its inherent aggression and reduce the need for law enforcement by the government."

Call upon tobacco industry
To facilitate the introduction of the new, child safe vending machines, the tobacco industry is called upon to terminate the financial support of the outdated vending machine network.

About Wurlitzer: www.wurlitzer.de
Jürgen Obermeier, tel: [phone]

About Ageviewers: www.ageviewers.com - www.otcbb.com, "TLCO"
Sander Sciarone or Dirk Benschop, tel: [phone]

SOURCE Teleconnect, Inc.

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