Butte County Municipal Code Ch. 48 Automated Point-of-Sale Stations Registration Certificate

a. It is unlawful to charge at the time of sale, a price that is more than the price that is advertised or posted Pursuant to California Business and Professions Code sections 12103.5, 12024.2 and 12024.6. The purpose of this Chapter is to ensure that the advertised or posted price of a commodity is the price actually charged for that commodity.

b. No person shall be required to sell at a price incorrectly stated in an advertisement which is incorrect as a result of a typographical error or other inadvertent misprint and may also correct pricing errors resulting from the misplacement of merchandise by consumers.

c. This Chapter establishes a system to identify, register and inspect point of sale stations in retail commodity sales.

d. In addition, this Chapter authorizes cost recovery for testing and inspection of these point of sale stations, penalties for failure to obtain a scanner registration certificate or for late payment of scanner registration certificate and failure to make available a current scanner registration certificate.

(Ord. No. 3891, § 1 (part), 12-14-2004)

For the purpose of this Article, the following words and phrases are defined and shall be constructed as having the following meaning:

a. "Department" shall mean the Agricultural Commissioner of the County of Butte.

b. "Person" shall mean any person, firm, corporation, business or association.

c. "Sell" includes barter, exchange, trade, keep for sale, offer for sale or expose for sale, barter, exchange, trade in any manner, under any conditions.

d. "Automated Point of sale station" shall mean individual and separate equipment that is capable of recovering electrically store price information that is used to charge consumers for the purchase of commodities.

"Point of sale stations" shall include, but is not limited to, equipment that uses Universal Product Code scanners, price look-up codes or any other system that relies on the retrieval of electronically stored information to complete a transaction of commerce between a retailer and a consumer.

e. "Location" shall mean any room, enclosure, building, vehicle, space or area in any single place on which a single business operates point of sale stations.

f. "Commercial Purpose" includes any sale of a commodity or thing by a person.

g. "Commodity" shall mean any article of commerce or anything that is bought or sold.

(Ord. No. 3891, § 1 (part), 12-14-2004)

a. It shall be unlawful for a person to use an automated point of sale station for commercial purposes without first obtaining a scanner registration certificate in accordance with the provisions of this Article. A separate certificate shall be required for each location.

b. Scanner Registration Certificates shall be issued upon written application on a form furnished by the Department and payment of fees and late penalties as set forth in Section 3-61(p) of this Code. Fees must be paid before services are provided or performed, set forth in section 3-60 of this Code.

c. At each location, the applicable certificate shall be readily available to any official of the Department.

(Ord. No. 3891, § 1 (part), 12-14-2004)

a. All certificates shall be valid for up to one year. Renewal of a certificate shall be made in a manner similar to the issuance of the original certificate.

b. Certificates shall not be transferable between persons or locations.

c. Registration certificate holder shall not lease, sublet, subcontract or in any manner allow any other person or entity to engage in activities regulated under the certificate, except as an employee of the certificate holder.

(Ord. No. 3891, § 1 (part), 12-14-2004)

a. The scanner registration certificate fee for any operating or utilizing a point of sale station shall be in an amount as set forth in Section 3-61(p)(1) of this code.

b. Fees. The failure to renew a scanner registration certificate prior to its expiration shall cause the imposition of a delinquent fee in an amount as set forth in Section 3-61(p)(2) of this code.

(Ord. No. 3891, § 1 (part), 12-14-2004)

It shall be unlawful for any person or an employee or agent thereof to use point of sale stations without a valid, current registration certificate.

(Ord. No. 3891, § 1 (part), 12-14-2004)

Penalties for failure to obtain a registration certificate, failure to have a current registration certificate or failure to make available a current registration certificate shall be imposed as follows:

a. Unless otherwise provided, any person violating any provisions under this Article shall be guilty of an infraction or misdemeanor as hereinafter specified.

b. Any person so convicted shall be:

(1) guilty of an infraction offense and punished by a fine not exceeding one hundred dollars ($100.00) and not less than fifty dollars ($50.00) for a first offense;

(2) guilty of an infraction offense and punished by a fine not exceeding two hundred dollars ($200.00) and not less than one hundred dollars ($100.00) for a second offense;

(3) guilty of a misdemeanor for the third and any additional offenses and punished by a fine not exceeding one thousand dollars ($1,000.00) and not less than five hundred dollars ($500.00) or six months in jail or both.

c. Notwithstanding the above, a first or second offense may be charged and prosecuted as a misdemeanor.

d. Payment of any fine or service of a jail sentence shall not relieve a person from the responsibility of correcting the condition resulting from the violation.

e. In addition to the above penalties, the court may, as a rehabilitative measure, order that the guilty party reimburse the County for all of its out-of-pocket costs, if any, of investigating, analyzing and prosecuting the enforcement action against the guilty party. The court shall set the amount of any such restitution ordered pursuant to this subsection upon submission of proof of such costs by the County.

f. In addition to all other remedies provided by this Chapter or State Law, in the event of continuing violation of the provisions of this Chapter, the Department may seek injunctive relief to restrain further violation.

(Ord. No. 3891, § 1 (part), 12-14-2004)