Compliance check

Definition

The decoy purchase an underage buyer attempts, run by the state's own enforcement staff.

Why It Matters

Enforcement arrives in disguise, and the penalty schedule is published and escalates inside a two-year window. Washington's grid puts a first sale to a minor at five days or a five hundred dollar option, a second at seven days, a third at thirty, and a fourth at cancellation of the license. The window is the part a buyer inherits, because violations already inside it count toward the next one. Ask the regulator for the license's own violation history before closing, since a store on its second strike is a different asset from an identical store on none.