Age Verification
In order to sell age restricted items on our website, we must perform an age verification check to confirm that the person we are selling to is not underage. WHSmith cannot sell age restricted items to any customers who fail this check or who cannot confirm their age through a PayPal or LayBuy account.
- How Does Age Verification Work?
- Which Products are Age Restricted?
- Will WHSmith Have Access to my Data?
- How Do I Withdraw my Consent to Store my Data and Ask to be Forgotten?
- Can I Choose Not to Submit to an Age Verification Check?
- Who Do I Speak to about Age Verification?
How Does the Age Verification Check Work?
When you add an age verified product to your basket, you will be notified that an age verification check will be required. During the checkout process, we will ask for your name, address and date of birth to verify your age with our data vendor; TransUnion. TransUnion will then verify your information against a variety of data sets, including birth records, the open electoral role, CCJs, bankruptcy records, IVA and insolvency data. The check is designed to be quick and accurate.
We will not perform a credit check as part of this service, or access sensitive data such as criminal records.
Which Products are Age Restricted?
The following items on the WHSmith website are age restricted:
- DVDs classified unsuitable for viewers under the ages of 12, 15 or 18
- Games with a PEGI rating of 12 or above
- Blades, including scissors
- Intoxicating solvents, including super glue and correction fluid
- Aerosol paint
Will WHSmith Have Access to my Data?
WHSmith does not have access to your data to perform an age verification check. We use TransUnion; a third party identity verification service that does have authorisation to access your data. We will simply receive verification that you are above the required age to purchase the product in question, or not.
WHSmith will ask for your name, address and date of birth to begin the age verification check. WHSmith does not save or store this data, and this data will not be used for anything other than performing the age verification check.
How Do I Withdraw my Consent to Store my Data and Ask to be Forgotten?
If you are signed into your WHSmith account when you agree to an age verification check then we will save whether you are verified or not to your account information. You can request for this to be removed by contacting our customer services team. No other data will be saved by WHSmith as part of the age verification check.
If you agree to the age verification check whilst going through the checkout process as a guest, then no data will be saved as part of the age verification check.
Can I Choose Not to Submit to an Age Verification Check?
If you would prefer to avoid an age verification check, you can choose to pay using your PayPal or LayBuy account instead. Please check our Payment Help page for information on exclusions and terms when using these services.
Who Do I Speak to about Age Verification?
If you have any concerns about age verification then you can contact our customer services team by emailing us at support@whsmith.co.uk.
Please note that we cannot take orders over email or on the phone, and we cannot override the results of an unsuccessful age verification check. If your age verification check was unsuccessful, you have the option to buy your age restricted items using a PayPal or LayBuy account instead.