(a) Minimum Legal Sales Age for Tobacco Products. The sale of any tobacco product to a person under the age of twenty-one is prohibited.
(b) Age Verification. Before distributing any tobacco product, the tobacco retailer or the tobacco retailer's agent or employee shall verify that the purchaser is at least twenty-one years of age. Each tobacco retailer or tobacco retailer's agent or employee shall examine the purchaser's government-issued photographic identification. No such verification is required for a person over the age of thirty. That a purchaser appeared to be thirty years of age or older shall not constitute a defense to a violation of this section.
(c) Signage.
(1) No tobacco retailer shall sell, permit the sale of, or furnish tobacco products in the City unless a notice, as proscribed in this section, is posted at all locations where tobacco products are available for purchase. All notices must be posted in a manner conspicuous to both employees and consumers, unobstructed from view in their entirety, and within six feet of each register where tobacco products are available for purchase. Franklin County Public Health shall provide this notice, which shall prominently state "No person under the age of 21 may be sold nicotine or tobacco products, including electronic smoking devices". The notice must be at least fourteen inches by eleven inches and the words on the notice must be legibly printed in such a way as to be highly visible and easily legible.
(2) Selling tobacco products in any place that does not have a sign consistent with this section is prohibited by law and punishable under this Chapter.
(d) Flavored Tobacco Product Sales Prohibition.
(1) It shall be unlawful for a tobacco retailer or its agent, employee, or representative to sell or offer for sale any flavored tobacco product.
(2) There shall be a rebuttable presumption that a tobacco product is a flavored tobacco product if a tobacco retailer, manufacturer, or any employee or agent of a tobacco retailer or manufacturer:
A. Makes a public statement or claim that a tobacco product imparts a taste or smell other than the taste or smell of tobacco; or
B. Uses text, images, or coloring on the tobacco product's labeling or packaging to explicitly or implicitly indicate that the tobacco product imparts a taste or smell other than the taste or smell of tobacco.
(e) Delivery Sales. Delivery sales of tobacco products by any means are prohibited under this chapter.
(f) Self Service Displays. No tobacco retailer or their employee or agent shall sell or otherwise distribute tobacco products by or from a self-service display, including through vending machines, except in places where persons under the age of twenty-one are not permitted access at any time.
(Ord. 48-22. Passed 3-7-23.)