Evan Schuman's StorefrontBacktalk

The law adds that the age-verification database can’t be “in the possession or under the control of the delivery seller, or be subject to any changes or supplementation by the delivery seller.” In other words, an E-tailer selling tobacco must use a third-party database. It can’t be done in-house.

And the law requires that the delivery service used must get a signature for the package—and check a driver’s license or other proof of age from the person accepting the delivery.

Internet cigarette sites already know about the PACT Act. Amazon, where tobacco is a drop-in-the-bucket business, probably figures it’s safe with a disclaimer that it doesn’t actually sell tobacco, it just takes the orders. (There’s more than a little irony here, given that Amazon has been accused of collecting too much customer information—including age information—and cross-checking it with public sources.)

But notice the wording of the PACT Act: It’s illegal even to accept an order without carding the customer. (Apparently, lawmakers are getting at least a little smarter about how E-Commerce sometimes works.)

More important than Amazon and tobacco, though, is the precedent this sets. The fact that most online tobacco sellers are doing age verification pretty much wipes out the excuse that it’s impossible. That means if some enthusiastic prosecutor goes after an E-tailer under local laws that make it illegal to sell minors a particular product—such as that hookah in California—the old excuse that it’s impossible to check ages isn’t going to fly.

Of course, most big E-Commerce retailers aren’t selling the obvious age-controlled products, alcohol and tobacco. (Amazon and eBay are the exceptions—they offer almost anything by way of third-party sellers, making the whole situation even messier.) But those local laws can bring much less obvious products into the scope of age verification for retail chains.

What happens if a local law prohibits selling certain video games to, say, customers under 14? What if a state or city sets certain age limits on BB guns, energy drinks or other products? Keeping track of those age requirements is a nightmare, and doing age verification on every online order is likely to cost some sales. It’s more friction for what’s supposed to be frictionless E-Commerce, and an expense that no big retailer thought it needed online.

But none of that is likely to matter to a publicity-hungry prosecutor who decides to go after a major chain that makes an age-inappropriate sale online—especially if the law actually does require something that’s possible, practical and actually being done for tobacco, and most especially if the chain doesn’t actually have a brick-and-mortar store locally that provides voters with jobs.