Non-Compliance Costs

The GDPR applies to all kinds of vendors and organizations regardless of the type of products and services they offer. The purpose of this regulation is to ensure privacy and secure record-keeping of personal data of users. This framework is equally important when verifying the age of users during customer onboarding procedures. GDPR being rigorous in nature imposes hefty fines ranging from $22.5 million US dollars to a maximum of four per cent of the annual global income of the company. ^[5]

Till June 2016, the minimum penalty for not complying with COPPA was 160,000 US dollars, which was increased up to 43,280 US dollars per violation. With this change, minor protection incentives were reinforced to provide better compensation to the victim and deliver a strong message to the defiant party. ^[6]

Financial Loss

Online businesses can reduce friendly fraud resulting in chargebacks by parents against the non-consenting transactions performed by their children. An age verifier integrated into a platform or an application can check for age and other identity information of a person which regulates the use of age-restricted products and services, ultimately preventing chargeback costs for the business. Online age verification provides an all-in-one solution which is far better than self-verification, manual age checks by humans, and checkboxes to confirm age on websites, saving business a great deal of money.

Conclusion

To wrap up, age verification is the need of the hour to protect the young generation from the adverse effects of age-restricted goods and services. Merchants have the corporate social responsibility to secure minors and to restrict their access. Online age verification is one of the most seamless and cost-effective methods to practice age verification protocols. 

Shufti Pro’s age verification services allow easy onboarding of customers in a wide range of industries including online gaming, e-commerce, tobacco, alcohol and cannabis. By ensuring minor protection in light of global regulations, we offer merchants of age-exclusive products to use our services with a single API integration. ^[7]