Arizona Laws 3-3475. Civil penalties; hearing
A. A person who violates this chapter, any rule of the division or any license requirement is subject to a civil penalty imposed by the associate director.
Terms Used In Arizona Laws 3-3475
- Associate director: means the associate director of the division. See Arizona Laws 3-3401
- Commercial device: means any weighing, measuring, metering or counting device that is used to determine the direct cost of things sold or offered or exposed for sale, or used to establish a fee for service if the cost is based on weight, measure or count, except that it does not include those devices used for in-house packaging, inventory control or law enforcement purposes. See Arizona Laws 3-3401
- Division: means the weights and measures services division of the department. See Arizona Laws 3-3401
- Motor fuel: means a petroleum or a petroleum-based substance that is motor gasoline, aviation gasoline, number one or number two diesel fuel or any grade of oxygenated gasoline typically used in the operation of a motor engine, including biodiesel blends, biofuel blends and ethanol flex fuels. See Arizona Laws 3-3401
- Package: means any commodity enclosed in a container or wrapped in any manner in advance of sale in units suitable for either wholesale or retail trade. See Arizona Laws 3-3401
- Person: means both the plural and the singular, as the case demands, and includes individuals, partnerships, corporations, companies, societies and associations. See Arizona Laws 3-3401
- Product transfer document: means any bill of lading, loading ticket, manifest, delivery receipt, invoice or other documentation used on any occasion when a person transfers custody or title of motor fuel other than when motor fuel is sold or dispensed at a service station or fleet vehicle fueling facility. See Arizona Laws 3-3401
- Public weighmaster: means any person who is engaged in any of the following:
(a) The business of weighing any object or thing for the public generally for hire or for internal use and issuing for that weighing a weight certificate intended to be accepted as an accurate weight on which a purchase or sale is to be based or on which a service fee is to be charged. See Arizona Laws 3-3401
- Registered service representative: means any individual who for hire, award, commission or any other payment of any kind installs, services, repairs or reconditions a commercial device or tests or repairs vapor recovery systems or vapor recovery components and who has been issued a license by the division. See Arizona Laws 3-3401
- Supplier: means any person that imports gasoline into a vehicle emissions control area by means of a pipeline or in truckload quantities for the person's own use within the vehicle emissions control area or any person that sells gasoline intended for ultimate consumption within a vehicle emissions control area, except that supplier does not mean a person with respect to gasoline supplied or sold by the person to another for resale to a retailer within a vehicle emissions control area or to a fleet owner for consumption within a vehicle emissions control area. See Arizona Laws 3-3401
B. A person who violates this chapter, any rule of the division or any license requirement may request an informal or formal hearing to review a civil penalty imposed under this section. If the person requests an informal hearing, the division may conduct the informal hearing, in person or telephonically, to resolve a warning or citation. If the person requests a formal hearing or the warning or citation is not resolved in the informal hearing, the division shall conduct a formal hearing in accordance with Title 41, Chapter 6, Article 10. Except as prescribed in subsection C of this section, the civil penalty shall not exceed one thousand dollars for each infraction nor more than ten thousand dollars for any thirty-day period at each business location, for each registered service representative or for each public weighmaster, provided that no person shall be assessed more than fifty thousand dollars per thirty-day period.
C. The associate director may double the maximum civil penalty if any of the following applies:
1. A commercial device is found to be in violation with results that favor the retailer at more than twice the allowable tolerance as stated in national institute of standards and technology handbook 44.
2. A package is found to exceed the maximum allowable variation for the labeled quantity allowed in national institute of standards and technology handbook 133 or the average error of the lot is twice the sample error limit in favor of the retailer.
3. A vapor recovery system reinspection fails the required tests.
4. A maximum civil penalty has been imposed on a retailer for a price posting or price verification violation and in a reinspection, if conducted within ninety days, the failure rate is ten percent or more and at least one error is in favor of the retailer.
5. A maximum civil penalty has been imposed on a refiner, refinery, pipeline, terminal, fuel transporter, registered supplier or transmix processing facility for a violation of motor fuel quality standards or producing a product transfer document that is incorrect, incomplete or produced in any manner tending to mislead or deceive a person.
D. The attorney general shall bring actions to recover civil penalties pursuant to this section in the superior court in the county in which the violation occurred or in a county where the agency has its office. All monies derived from civil penalties shall be deposited, pursuant to sections 35-146 and 35-147, in the state general fund.