How to find out if alcohol is real. Methods for checking alcohol excise stamps

The Federal Service for Alcohol Regulation (FS RAR) has released the Anti-Counterfeit Alko application for devices running Android, iOS and Windows Phone. The program allows you to check the authenticity of information on federal special stamps and excise stamps. Data is requested via the Internet from EGAIS. The application allows you to scan the barcode on the stamp, after which you can immediately report a violation. It also contains a map of stores licensed to sell alcohol.

How does EGAIS work?

All alcohol producers and importers label each unit of product (keg, bottle, etc.). The manufacturer affixes federal special stamps, and the importer affixes excise stamps. The 2D barcode on each bottle contains:

name of alcoholic products,

manufacturer information,

licenses,

date of bottling of the drink and its other unique characteristics.

The warehouseman of a retail store, in the process of accepting alcohol into the warehouse, is required to process invoices from suppliers through the Unified State Automated Information System.

To meet the technical requirements, each retail outlet must have a computer with a universal transport module (UTM) and an Internet connection. You also need a JaCarta crypto key with a qualified signature. The merchandiser must carry out acceptance in a modified store inventory system that can work with EGAIS, or in a third-party software product.

When selling alcohol, the cashier uses a scanner to read the barcode from the bottle. The store's cash register program, modified to meet the requirements of EGAIS, sends information from the bar via the Internet to the FS RAR server for verification. After successful verification, the system generates a unique QR code for the receipt and the alcohol is released to the buyer.

The buyer receives a receipt with a QR code (even if he bought several bottles of alcohol, one QR code is printed on the receipt).

It happens that buyers risk purchasing low-quality goods. This applies to any product, including alcohol. To prevent alcoholic beverages from causing poisoning, there is a tax stamp on alcohol. This is a kind of document in the form of a sticker confirming the quality of the product. It contains information about the product, its origin and movement throughout the country.

According to the legislation of the Russian Federation, all alcoholic products are subject to excise tax labeling. If it is domestically produced, then it has a sign of federal significance.

Checking the quality of alcoholic products using excise stamps

The excise stamp on alcohol indicates payment of the tax fixed in the country for the sale of alcoholic beverages. The document is subject to strict reporting at the state level, therefore it is regularly checked by regulatory authorities. If the sale of alcohol with or without a counterfeit excise tax is detected, the seller will be held administratively liable.

Today, the excise stamp for alcohol has a certain shape and appearance, which makes it possible to distinguish it from a fake. There are several ways to do this.

Visual assessment

The following signs are taken into account:

• Appearance: clear paint, no streaks. This brand does not leave marks on the hand after touching.
• Excise geometry: smooth rectangular edges, label dimensions 90*26 and 62*21 mm.
• Convexity of the golden line crossing the sticker. The strip should not be easily applied to the paper, but should look like woven threads.
• On the other side the presence of a luminescent inscription “Alcohol products”.
• The words “Russian Federation” and the abbreviation FSM(Federal special stamp) are printed in small font, which can be distinguished with one hundred percent vision.
• Hologram image in the form of a complex geometric pattern that shimmers at different angles.
• Blue squares, glowing under a fluorescent lamp.
• 12 digit number clarity. It is easy to identify a fake using it using the appropriate information resource.

Mobile app

Checking alcohol by excise stamp is carried out not only visually, but also thanks to a special mobile application. To do this, a barcode confirming the quality of the excise tax is scanned with a telephone camera. After which the necessary information about the manufacturer is displayed on the screen.

Internet

Via the Internet, through the official websites of companies producing alcoholic beverages. To verify the authenticity of the excise tax, simply dial the label number using a special scanner in the store.

Excise tax check by color

Modern technologies make it possible to design a brand in different shades. It is easy to determine the alcohol content of a bottle by color:

• A red-gray tone indicates that the drink contains a small amount of alcohol - from 9 to 25%.
• An orange-pink tint is a sign that the alcohol product contains a lot of alcohol - from 25%.
• Green-lilac color indicates wines. Their strength is 15–22%.
• If the drink is of the sparkling type, it has a yellow-green excise tax.

Determining the authenticity of the excise tax in the store

It is imperative to pay attention to the labeling of alcoholic products in the store. The excise stamp for alcohol, like a banknote, is printed on special paper and has its own security system. It should fit tightly to the bottle and not be damaged. Goods with damaged excise taxes are not put on shelves for sale.

Using a special scanner, which is found in every major shopping center, is the easiest way to determine the quality of a product. To do this, the buyer has the right to contact the supermarket administration to use the device to check the number:

• If the equipment does not reveal any violations, and the buyer still has doubts about the quality of the product, he can contact the Forensic Expertise Center to prove his suspicions.
• If the scanner shows that the excise tax does not meet the requirements, it is better to refuse the purchase.

You can also ask the seller to show a copy of the quality certificate, which contains information about the manufacturer, supplier and importer. The information specified in the document and on the excise tax must match.

Actions upon detection of counterfeit excise tax

Checking alcohol using the excise stamp allows you to record cases of violation of consumer rights. If a product is found to be counterfeit, you must adhere to the following rules:

1. Keep the receipt for low-quality goods.
2. Write a corresponding statement to the district police department and Rospotrebnadzor in order to punish violators.
3. Send a letter to the city department of commerce.

All written documents must include information about the product:

• name, manufacturer;
• date and place of purchase;
• copies of checks;
• photo of a drink with excise duty.

The competent authorities consider the complaint within a month and issue a written opinion.

Alcohol products sold in the Russian Federation must undergo mandatory labeling. This helps control the turnover and quality of alcoholic beverages. The type of brand depends on the place of production of alcoholic beverages. Alcoholic drinks produced in Russia are marked with special federal marks; its presence means acceptance of the product during certification by Rosalkogolregulirovanie.

What is a tax stamp?

The following information is applied to the excise stamp:

• type and name of the product;
• ethyl alcohol content in the product;
• its volume;
• information about the manufacturer, including addresses;
• country of manufacture;
• confirmation of product quality.

The presence of an excise tax stamp on alcohol indicates not only the quality of the purchased cognac or vodka, but also the legality of the trademark. But there are still a lot of counterfeit products on the market with fake tax stamps. When regulatory authorities discover such goods, stores are subject to large fines, alcohol is confiscated and destroyed.

Verification methods

There are several ways to check excise taxes:

1. 1. Using a mobile application. To check excise stamps using this method, you need to download the “Anti-counterfeiting info” application to your smartphone; it is designed for the Android operating system and was developed by specialists from Rosalkogolregulirovanie. To check the stamp, you need to scan the barcode of the excise stamp or the QR code on the receipt using your phone camera. After this, detailed information about the manufacturer will be displayed on the screen. Also, using the application, you can find the nearest licensed stores and notify law enforcement agencies about the discovery of counterfeit goods.
2. 2. On the website http://fsrar.ru/. This method is only available to organizations that sell alcoholic beverages. On the Rosalkogolregulirovanie website, in the electronic services section, you can check excise taxes using the information base of this organization. To gain access to the service, you need to confirm your license.
3. 3. On the manufacturer's website. Some companies are developing their own services for decoding excise stamps. To check, you need to go to the manufacturer’s official website and enter the excise label number using a special scanner in the store.

Alcohol products, along with such consumer goods as tobacco and gasoline, are subject to excise tax - a special type of tax. With the help of excise tax, the state can regulate prices, sales volumes and quality of products, which is especially important in relation to alcohol.

In light of recent events related to mass poisoning of the population, quality control of alcoholic products is an important area of ​​the country's policy. What consumer protection mechanisms are currently in place, from what date are sellers inspected, and what rules for the sale of alcoholic products are mandatory for the market of alcohol-containing products?

Excise duty value

According to the Tax Code, namely Chapter 22 “Excise Taxes”, alcohol is recognized as an excisable product, which significantly affects pricing in this area.

Because this type of tax is included in the final cost of products sold, changes in the cost of the excise tax are felt primarily by the end consumer.

Ethyl alcohol, according to a special list, is classified as excisable goods, which obliges the inclusion of excise duty in the price of the following products:

• alcohols (anhydrous ethyl, food, non-food, denatured);
• distillates (whiskey, calvados, fruit, wine, grape, cognac);
• guilt;
• liqueurs;
• cognacs;
• vodka;
• beer.

The excise tax rate on alcohol increases annually, as reflected in Article 193 of the Tax Code. So, for example, since 2107, rates for alcoholic products (ruble per liter) are as follows:

According to current legislation, any alcoholic product, except beer and its derivatives, must contain an excise stamp on its packaging. Excise stamps can be obtained by organizations that have permits for the production or sale of alcohol-containing products. In addition, the organization must be able to document a shipment of excisable goods.

In addition to the fact that alcoholic products are designated, as well as the fact that the product meets current quality and safety standards, The excise stamp carries very important information about the product:

• manufacturer country;
• Name;
• proportion of ethyl alcohol content;
• packaging volume.

Legislation in 2019

In 2019, alcohol trade must be carried out by persons connected to the Unified State Automated Information System (USAIS).

This system allows you to collect information on each unit of alcohol sold, from its composition, strength and volume, to the country of origin, as well as the date and place of sale.

In the future, EGAIS should become a universal tool for identifying counterfeits and maintaining records of all alcoholic products in the country. Connecting to a single system complements and in no way cancels compulsory licensing. Both manufacturers and sellers of alcohol-containing products are subject to licensing.

License

The state organization that monitors the circulation of alcoholic products, as well as performing the functions of a licensing authority, is the Federal Service for the Regulation of Alcohol Products.

A person producing or selling alcoholic products is required to submit an application and the corresponding package of documents to the territorial office of the FSRAR for timely receipt.

In addition to submitting an application, manufacturers and sellers must pay a state fee, which, depending on the applicant, is equal to:

Retail

Changes in the retail trade of alcoholic products associated with the Unified State Automated Information System allowed the state to significantly increase budget revenues in just six months. Thanks to the forced legalization of some manufacturers and sellers, the volume of manufactured products increased by 30%. As for the increase in payments to the federal treasury, they amounted to about 120 billion rubles over six months, which is almost 20% more than in the previous year.

Changes in the alcohol retail trade dictate their requirements already at the stage of purchasing products from suppliers. In order for alcohol to appear on the counter. It is necessary to match the data on the products of both parties to the transaction. If, after verification, the unified system confirms the fact of delivery, then the alcohol can be sold; otherwise, information about discrepancies in information is reflected in the Unified State Automated Information System.

When selling alcohol to the end consumer, the seller is obliged to conduct the transaction through EGAIS. Only after reading the information about the product, the system allows the sale to be made and issues the buyer a receipt with a barcode confirming the quality of the product.

Bottling

Persons selling alcoholic beverages by the glass are also required to join the unified system. In addition to this requirement, sellers must adhere to the following rules:

• Only permanent premises should serve as points of sale of draft alcoholic beverages, with the exception of temporary catering establishments;
• the point of sale should be located away from educational, medical and cultural institutions;
• The point of sale should not be located at gas stations, train stations, markets and other crowded places;
• persons can buy alcohol at least 18 years old, from 10.00 to 22.00.

It is worth noting that the sale of draft beer, cider, mead, etc. can be carried out by individual entrepreneurs without a license, which cannot be said about the sale of strong draft drinks.

How to spot a fake product

Despite the fact that excise stamps are made using various security technologies, bootleggers manage to successfully counterfeit them. At first glance, such brands do not differ from real ones and do not raise any doubts. However, having examined the container more carefully, and also having several recommendations at your disposal, you can easily distinguish counterfeit products from quality products.

Visual inspection

First of all, you should carefully examine the container of an alcoholic product - often this is enough to recognize a counterfeit:

1. If, when you touch a tax stamp, the paint on it smears, leaving marks on your hand, you should definitely be wary.
2. Stamps are made at Goznak, so their appearance must be appropriate.

Scanner check

In many large retail chains and specialized alcohol stores you can see so-called scanners - devices that read barcodes, displaying information about the product on the screen. Such a check can allow you to check the quality of the selected alcohol without going to the cash register.

Dimensions of current stamps

1. Excise stamps have the following dimensions: 9cmx2.6cm and 6.2cmx2.1cm. If the packaging of alcohol contains brands of different sizes, then most likely the product does not correspond to the declared quality.
2. In addition, it is worth paying attention to how tightly the stamp holds, and whether there are any uneven or crumpled edges.

Receipt and barcode

When purchasing alcohol in a store connected to EGAIS, the buyer is provided with a special receipt with a QR code. By scanning the code or clicking on the link below it, you can go to the Federal Tax Service website, where detailed information about the product, its seller and manufacturer will be provided.

Among other things, the stamp must have the following features:

• luminescent inscription “alcohol products”;
• microtext negative/positive “brand/FSM”;
• hologram in the shape of a diamond, inside of which is the inscription “RF”;
• fibers, like those used for banknotes.

Sample

In order to easily distinguish a counterfeit tax stamp from a real one, you need to carefully examine a known high-quality bottle of alcohol and pay attention to the signs indicated above. Since a good fake will require significant costs, it is unlikely that all security features will be present on such a tax stamp. For clarity, it makes sense to put real and fake products side by side.

Checking alcohol by excise stamp online

The Federal Service for the Regulation of Alcoholic Products has launched an online service “Stamp Check”, which allows you to use the excise stamp number to compare whether the information in the Unified State Automated Information System corresponds to the information that is actually available. In addition, some manufacturers of alcoholic beverages offer connoisseurs of their brands to check the quality of purchased drinks using their unique services.

Video: Checking the excise stamp

Checking purchased alcohol using a barcode will eliminate the risk of buying a counterfeit product. The legislation carefully regulates the circulation of alcohol, however, despite this, the number of unlicensed products is not decreasing. If in bars and restaurants the thought of checking alcohol does not always arise, then when purchasing in a store there are more opportunities for this.

There are a number of measures that allow you to check whether alcohol is licensed, but there is an easier option to check the information about the product you are purchasing. In the retail chain, product information is registered using a barcode.

Barcode on the label

The barcode carries a lot of information, in particular:

• About the country of origin;
• About the name of the product, its category;
• About the expiration date;
• About the authenticity of the digital code;

It seems that there is nothing difficult about faking a label, but the combination of numbers at the end of a 13-digit barcode allows you to identify an error. The verification system is so simple, so fake barcodes are stamped without taking into account the payment system, which is why they are caught during verification. And attempts to take into account the peculiarities of verification do not produce tangible results.

Barcodes can be of 2 types: 13- and 12-digit, depending on the country using this system. For example, in the European system the code consists of 13 digits, and in Canada and the USA it consists of 12 characters.

The International Product Accounting System has developed an individual code for each country for ease of reading the information.

You can check the barcode by downloading an application for your phone's operating system. You can use the service and check alcoholic and other alcoholic products online.

Code review

How to check the authenticity of the code:

• Manually
• Automatically

To manually check, you need to add up the numbers in even positions and multiply the resulting number by 3, add this indicator with the sum of odd numbers, except for the last one, which is the control. For the resulting number, you must use the units exponent, subtracting this figure from 10. The resulting value must match the last digit of the barcode.

To automatically check, you only need to enter the barcode correctly, click in the “Check” field and evaluate the result. If the code is genuine, then it is highlighted with a green background; if it is fake, then the corresponding inscription appears.

There are several reasons why the numbers corresponding to the country of origin do not show the name they should, this could be due to several reasons:

• The main plant has representatives and subsidiaries in other countries, although the brand will be retained.
• If you have a license, the product can be manufactured in another country on behalf of a foreign manufacturer;
• The company was registered in another country. In this case, all products will be labeled at the registration address.
• If the company consists of several foreign founders, then the country code can be any of all the founding countries.

Knowing these subtleties, you can avoid purchasing counterfeit and low-quality products.