If the percentages specified in section 22a-256n are not achieved by publishers as a group on the dates specified, as shown by reports submitted to the Commissioner of Energy and Environmental Protection in accordance with section 22a-256r, each publisher individually shall meet the percentages established in said section 22a-256n for the remaining years. Beginning in the year following the failure of such publishers, as a group, to achieve such levels, any publisher which individually fails to meet the specified levels shall be assessed a civil penalty of five dollars per ton based on the number of tons of recycled fiber representing the shortfall, provided such civil penalty, to be fixed by the court, shall be not less than two thousand five hundred dollars and not more than one hundred thousand dollars. The Attorney General, upon request of the commissioner, may institute a civil action in the superior court for the judicial district of Hartford to recover such penalty.