October 2025: British American Tobacco and Channel Islands Coop will roll out Yoti facial age estimation in stores to combat youth access
British American Tobacco (BAT) and The Channel Islands Co-operative Society Limited (Channel Islands Coop), the region’s largest retailer, partnered to launch Yoti facial age estimation technology in stores across Jersey. Live in 10 Coop stores, the pilot aims to combat underage access across all age-gated product categories.
The initiative forms part of BAT’s large-scale facial age estimation technology deployment in more than 600 stores across Europe and marks a step forward in supporting Coop’s store employees in age checking procedures and the overall customer experience through a smoother point of sale. BAT plans to reach 1,000 stores with Yoti technology by the end of 2025, including BAT-owned stores in Bosnia & Herzegovina and Croatia and the ongoing implementations in Poland, Italy, and Serbia. In traditional retail, projects are conducted with key retail partners in Greece and Hungary. Additionally, BAT is also piloting Yoti in trade activities where direct consumer interaction occurs; since August 2023, BAT deploys Yoti across BAT-owned vending machines in the UK. Early results from BAT pilot in Europe indicate a 99% accuracy rate.
Yoti estimates a person’s age by looking at their face and claims True Positive Rate (TPR) of 99.3% for 13-17 year olds estimated as under 21. Yoti also states that there is no discernible bias across gender or skin tone.
