BACKGROUND: Use of tobacco/nicotine and alcohol is usually initiated in adolescence, indicating the importance of decreasing the accessibility of these products to youth. Most countries have set bans on sales of these products to minors, but the infringements are common. Effective enforcement of these bans is the key in preventing sales to minors. Mystery shopping is one of the methods of checking compliance to age bans. Our aim was to describe the status of mystery shopping implementation and its characteristics in European countries.
METHODS: JA Prevent Non-communicable diseases (JAPreventNCD) is a project aiming to reduce the burden of cancer and non-communicable diseases in European Union. As part of this project, a questionnaire was developed to gather information on mystery shopping practices for tobacco/nicotine and alcohol in European countries. National experts from 36 countries (35 European countries and Israel) who could provide the data were identified and invited to complete an online questionnaire on mystery shopping implementation in their countries.
RESULTS: Experts from 31 countries provided data for their countries. Mystery shopping is implemented in 20 countries (19 European countries and Israel), either regularly (14) or occasionally (6). The characteristics of implementation of mystery shopping in different countries will be presented, including mystery shoppers’ characteristics, selection of points of sales, processes of purchase attempts, data collection, funding and sustainability.
CONCLUSIONS: Mystery shopping of tobacco/nicotine and alcohol as one of the methods of checking compliance to age bans is carried out in numerous European countries, however the implementation differs. The description of the mystery shopping implementation can support further expansion and strengthening of mystery shopping practices by providing the experience and practices of different countries and thus support more effective prevention of use of tobacco/nicotine and alcohol among youth.