CANTON, Mass. – Cumberland Farms Inc. has reached a settlement with the Mass. Attorney General’s Office of allegations that the company’s convenience stores “lacked proper procedures to curb tobacco sales to minors.”
In testing by the Mass. Department of Public Health’s Tobacco Compliance Program, Cumberland Farms stores allegedly sold tobacco products to a minor 134 times between 2004 and the first half of 2006.
Besides a payment of $35,000 to the attorney general’s Local Consumer Aid Fund, to help finance tobacco-related and other consumer programs, the agreement requires Cumberland Farms to establish new training programs and stricter policies for the sale of tobacco products; to program cash registers to remind workers to check ID; to hire an outside company to perform random compliance checks; to restrict tobacco advertising to tobacco display areas; to ban outside and outward-facing tobacco ads within 500 feet of a school or playground; and to ban the sale of candy, chewing gum and similar products designed to look like cigars or cigarettes.
“Massachusetts law requires retailers to check the photo ID of every customer who appears under the age of 27 to verify that the customer is at least 18-years-old before selling tobacco products, and we expect retailers to abide by that law,” said Attorney General Martha Coakley. “With every step we take toward curbing youth access to tobacco, we reduce the chances of lifelong nicotine addiction and increase chances of preventing many fatal diseases such as lung cancer.”
Additional information on tobacco-sales regulations in Massachusetts, including a Tobacco Complaint form for reporting suspected violations, can be found at www.ago.state.ma.us.
