The lawyer explained the rules governing the sale of alcoholic sweets

The ban on the retail sale of alcohol to minors applies only to real alcoholic beverages, and not to confectionery products with alcohol-containing fillings. Confectionery products with alcohol are subject to general food safety regulations and do not require a license to sell alcohol, unlike beverages. Veronika Polyakova, a criminal defense lawyer and managing partner of the Business Legal Group Bar Association, told Izvestia on December 9.

According to media reports, schoolchildren began to massively buy chocolates with strong alcohol on marketplaces. For example, pear-shaped candies with brandy inside are the most popular among teenagers.

"There are many appeals and complaints about this problem. So, the State Duma proposes to amend the legislation for age restriction and filtering on marketplaces, everyone sees a risk to the health of schoolchildren (a dozen of these candies may already contain an impressive amount of alcohol for the child's body)," the lawyer noted.

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According to her, Rospotrebnadzor is studying the issue of tightening controls, including checking the alcohol content (if more than 0.5%, it is equivalent to alcoholic products) and the mandatory indication "contains alcohol" in product cards. Violation of labeling may result in administrative liability under the Administrative Code of the Russian Federation, but it will not affect or prohibit the sale of these products to children.

"Marketplaces can indicate 18+ voluntarily, but there is no such obligation until legislative regulation is adopted. The problem remains unresolved at the moment," concluded Polyakova.

Earlier, on September 14, the Ministry of Internal Affairs reported that the main tools of scammers to involve children and teenagers in criminal activities were closed chats, job offer channels and "recruiting bots" in the Telegram messenger. Social networks VKontakte, Odnoklassniki, and game chats are also dangerous platforms.

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