A mystery-shopping study to test enforcement of minimum legal purchasing age in Lithuania in 2022

Background According to the Lithuanian law to prevent the sale of alcohol to customers below the legal minimum purchasing age of 20 years, young adults below 25 years must be asked to show an age-verification document when purchasing alcohol. The aim of this study was to assess whether off-premise outlets comply with the law. Methods In 2022, mystery-shopping study was carried out in three consecutive phases: (i) in a representative sample (n = 239) of off-premise alcohol outlets covering all Lithuanian district centres, (ii) after lifting the requirement to wear a mask and (iii) after warning the outlets that a mystery-shopping study was ongoing. Phases 2 and 3 were held in two cities. The mystery shopping involved attempts by young, but legally eligible customers to purchase alcohol. Across the three study phases, we compared compliance with the law by measuring overall success of purchase attempts and included situational characteristics (working day or weekend), time of day and number of customers in line as an additional predictor. Results Out of 239 attempts to purchase alcohol from off-premise outlets in the main phase of the study, 107 (or 44.8%) were considered to be successful (visits in which staff were willing to sell alcohol). There was a significantly higher chance of success to purchase alcohol with no ID request if a mystery shopper was the only customer in a queue and on weekends. Conclusions The results indicate an insufficient level of age-verification control in Lithuania, and that additional action is needed to increase compliance.