We Card recommends that retailers follow manufacturer restrictions of purchase limits.
What are Manufacturers’ Purchase Limits?
Manufacturers of tobacco and vaping products may set purchase limits — the quantity or amount of product you can sell in one transaction. We Card recommends that retailers follow these manufacturer restrictions.
Who enforces or makes sure Purchase Limits are followed?
Manufacturers may set purchase limits and they may have a system to confirm or require retail sellers of their products to follow those limits. They might include contracts with retailers, random mystery shops to test if their limits are being followed, manufacturer incentives or penalties for retailers, or other ways to check if their products are being sold to retail customers in the manner they desire.
What's the reason for Purchase Limits?
Generally speaking, purchase limits and some other manufacturer restrictions or policies on how their products are sold focuses on trying to reduce underage youth access to age-restricted products.
Underage youth self-report getting access to tobacco and vaping products 80-90% of the time in many other ways besides buying them in a store themselves. See the Research
One of the ways underage youth report getting access is adult-for-underage purchases.
Limiting large quantity purchases through Purchase Limits, may help reduce adult-for-underage purchases as well as related illicit re-selling and underage-to-underage giving of age-restricted products.
Each manufacturer may have specific additional reasons for their Purchase Limits and policies as well.
