Could a South Carolina business owner be charged when minors bought cigarettes from an unsupervised vending machine?

Plain-English summary

In 1999, Marion's police chief described a business serving mostly underage customers that had an unsupervised cigarette vending machine. He asked what could be done about minors obtaining cigarettes there. The Attorney General's office concluded that the owner could be charged under Section 16-17-500 when the machine furnished cigarettes to minors.

The office read the statute's prohibition on furnishing tobacco to minors “in person, by agent or in any other way” to cover machine sales. It found no practical distinction between an unchecked sale by a clerk and an unsupervised machine. The letter was an informal opinion, and it addressed potential charges when cigarettes were furnished to minors, not a general ban on vending machines.

Currency note

This opinion was issued in 1999. Subsequent statutory amendments, court decisions, or later AG opinions may have changed the analysis. Treat this page as historical context, not current legal advice. Verify current law before relying on any specific rule, deadline, or remedy mentioned here.

Common questions

Could the owner avoid liability because the cigarettes came from a machine? A: The AG said no. It treated an unsupervised vending machine as another way a person could furnish cigarettes to minors under the statute.

Did the opinion say every cigarette vending machine was illegal? A: No. It addressed a machine at a business with underage customers, no supervision of purchases, and sales to minors. Its conclusion concerned the owner's potential charge when the machine furnished cigarettes to minors.

What offense did the opinion identify?
A: It said the statute made furnishing cigarettes to a minor a misdemeanor and that a person could be charged each time cigarettes were sold to minors.

Background and statutory framework

The chief reported complaints about teenagers smoking and possessing cigarettes that were presumably obtained from the machine. The office quoted Section 16-17-500, including its coverage of supplying tobacco to minors “in any other way,” and applied that wording to an unsupervised machine.

Citations and references

Statute: Section 16-17-500.

Official title

Asking how to alleviate the problem of underage individuals paying for cigarettes from a vending machine.

Requester

Willie L. Smith, Marion Police Department

Source

• Landing page: https://www.scag.gov/opinions/opinions-archive/august-18-1999/
• Original PDF: https://www.scag.gov/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/99aug-18-smith.pdf

Original opinion text

The State of South Carolina

OFFICE OF THE ATTORNEY GENERAL
CHA.RLES M. CONDON
AITORNEY GENERAL

August 18, 1999
Willie L. Smith
Marion Police Department

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P.O. Box 1190
Marion, South Carolina 29571

Dear Chief Smith.
Thank you for your letter to this Office, dated June 16, 1998, which has been referred to me for a response. You write that a local business, whose clientele is predominately under-aged, has a cigarette vending machine on its premises. You also inform us that there is no supervision of the purchases from the vending machine, and you have received several complaints about teenagers smoking and possessing cigarettes, presumably obtained from these machines. Specifically, you ask what can be done to alleviate this problem. South Carolina Code of Laws Section 16-17-500, which prohibits the supplying of tobacco products to minors, says, in part: It shall be unlawful for any person to sell furnish, give, or provide any minor under the age

of eighteen years with cigarettes, tobacco, cigarette paper, or any other substitute therefor. Any person violating the provisions of this section, either in person, by agent or in any other way shall be guilty of a misdemeanor ... (emphasis added) Under this section a person may be charged with a misdemeanor each time cigarettes are sold to minors. There is no practical distinction between a store clerk who directly sells tobacco products to customers without asking for identification and the placement of an unsupervised vending machine on the premises of the business. To conclude that Section 16-17-500 does not include sales of tobacco by vending machines would lead to an absurd result·-store owners could furni~h tobacco products to anyone and relieve themselves of culpability simply by placing the cigarettes in machines. Therefore, it is the opinion of this Office that an unsupervised cigarette vending machine provides another way by which a person, the owner of the establishment, may be charged with violating Section 16-17-500 when furnishing cigarettes to minors.

REMOERi

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c. DENNIS BUILDING
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POST OPF!C~ Box 115-19

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s.c. 29111-1549 •

TELCPHONE: HOJ- 73.t-3970

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FACSfMILP.: BOJ-253·6283

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Chief Smith
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August 18, 1999

This letter is an infonnal opinion only. It has been vmtten by a designated Senior Assistant Attorney General and represents the position of the undersigned attorney as to the specific question asked. It has not, however, been personally scrutinized by the Attorney General not officially published in the manner of a fonnal opinion. With kind regards, I remain

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Robert D. Cook
Assistant Deputy Attorney General