Adult-site merchants doing business in the UK have until July 15th to implement age verification measures that ensure their consumers are at least 18 years of age. Previously, Segpay announced a collaboration with AVSecure, one of the leading providers of age verification solutions, to give Segpay merchants free access to a trusted resource for complying with this regulation. As part of this partnership, we’re also enabling UK consumers who verify through AVSecure to use Segpay as one of the approved methods for confirming they are over 18.
When merchants integrate with age verification providers such as AVSecure, their consumers (in the UK only, for now) are asked to verify that they are 18 or older the first time they visit an adult site after the law goes into effect. The law allows for a handful of valid ways a consumer can verify he or she is of legal age: for example, by providing a mobile phone number, a driver’s license number or a credit/debit card number, among others.
Because UK authorities also consider successful credit card payments as a valid form of age verification (prepaid cards excluded), Segpay worked with AVSecure to accommodate consumers who have made prior payments through our system. Here’s how it works: consumers (going through AVSecure) can select to verify through Segpay and provide a purchase ID, credit card number or email. While we cannot associate any of those items with someone’s age, we can associate them with a prior purchase, if one exists, and as a result authenticate that person as over 18. Segpay simply relays to AVSecure that a payment record is present in our system, and nothing more. No data about the consumer is shared. It is a completely anonymous process where we only say, “Yes we’ve found a previous payment record, this person can be considered 18 or older.”
One of our company slogans is “compliance reliance” because we always want to be ahead of regulations and be a partner where our merchants can seek guidance and know they never have to go it alone. Because complying with age verification laws is so crucial for a large number of Segpay merchants, we put a lot of thought into how best to provide solutions. It made perfect sense to team with a reputable provider like AVSecure, both to refer merchants and to leverage our 14-plus years worth of payment records to help adults over 18 more easily get verified. The goal is that merchants who follow the rules will see as little impact as possible to their businesses. If you are a merchant who still has questions about age verification, or any other compliance issues, please don’t hesitate to contact your sales rep or drop us a line at [email protected].
