1. THE LAWS OF NEW YORK

2. CONSOLIDATED LAWS

3. AGRICULTURE & MARKETS

4. ARTICLE 16: WEIGHTS AND MEASURES

SECTION 197-AWeights And Measures Fees

ARTICLE 16Weights And Measures

Section 197-BRetail pricing accuracy

Agriculture & Markets (AGM)

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1. Definitions. a. "Retail store" shall mean a store that sells stock-keeping 

units directly to consumers and charges or is liable for the collection of 

sales tax. For the purposes of this section the term "retail store" shall 

include those stores that use universal product code (UPC) scanners or 

price-look-up (PLU) codes in checkout systems or use manual pricing of 

items.

 b. "Pricing accuracy inspection" shall mean an inspection of a retail 

store for the purpose of ensuring that customers are charged the correct 

price for the items they purchase.

 c. "Price charged" means the price a customer is charged for an item. 

For prices determined by an automated checkout device, the price 

charged means the price on the receipt issued to the consumer after the 

final total has been determined, whether the item is scanned or actually 

purchased, the device is computing or recording while in training mode, 

or by using a hand-held device connected to a store's database.

 d. "Stock-keeping unit" means each group of items offered for sale of the 

same brand, quantity of contents, retail price, and having different 

colors, flavors, or varieties.
 e. "Retail price" means the lowest advertised, written, posted, or 

marked price of a stock-keeping unit.

 f. "Overcharge" means a price charged that is higher than the retail 

price.

 g. "Undercharge" means a price charged that is lower than the retail 

price.

 h. "Large overcharge" means an error of twenty-five cents on any 

individual item up to two dollars and fifty cents and ten percent 

thereafter.

 2. Pricing requirements. A retail store shall:

 a. Display the retail price of each stock-keeping unit offered for sale, 

either on each unit or on easy to read shelf tags, or signs, located directly 

above or below or immediately adjacent to every stock-keeping unit or 

group of stock-keeping units of the same brand, size and price.

 b. Assure that the price charged after the final total has been 

determined is equivalent to the retail price.

 c. If a UPC scanner system is used to determine the price charged, 

provide the appropriate inspection official access to the checkout system 

in use at such retail store to verify the price charged for items included in 

a pricing accuracy inspection. Access shall be provided to the system 

either in normal operating mode, in training mode, or through a handheld or other device tied to the store's database.

 d. Post, in a conspicuous place, the refund policy of such retail store in 

the event of an overcharge.

 3. Test procedures and accuracy requirements. a. The commissioner 

shall, by regulation, adopt test procedures utilizing randomized sampling 
techniques. Such procedures shall be consistent with the examination 

procedure for price verification developed by the national conference on 

weights and measures and published in the national institute of 

standards and technology handbook one hundred thirty. For purposes of 

this section, pricing accuracy inspections shall, to the extent possible, be 

conducted at a time and in a manner that does not interrupt the normal 

flow of retail business at the retail store.

 b. A retail store at least three hundred square feet in size shall be 

deemed in compliance if ninety-eight percent of the items in the sample 

selected are accurately priced. For purposes of this section retail stores 

that are less than three thousand square feet and employ a manual 

pricing system shall be deemed in compliance if, effective June first, two 

thousand seven through May thirty-first, two thousand eight, at least 

ninety-six percent of the items in the sample selected are accurately 

priced and beginning on June first, two thousand eight at least ninetyeight percent of the items in the sample selected are accurately priced.

 c. In addition to establishing a standard frequency of inspection 

consistent with the provisions of paragraph a of this subdivision, the 

commissioner or a weights and measures official may conduct 

inspections of individual items in response to consumer complaints or as 

a follow-up on items ordered to be corrected in a previous inspection.

 4. Enforcement procedures. a. The commissioner or a weights and 

measures official shall advise the operator of the retail store of any 

pricing error encountered in an inspection. If the correction cannot be 

made immediately, then, the commissioner or a weights and measures 

official shall issue a stop removal order for items subject to overcharges 

and such stock-keeping units shall be removed from sale until correction 

is made.

 b. Upon finding a violation of this section, the commissioner or the 

municipal director of weights and measures may impose civil penalties 

as prescribed in section thirty-nine of this chapter. Such penalty shall not 

exceed three hundred dollars per violation for violations assessed during 
an initial inspection in a calendar year and shall not exceed six hundred 

dollars per violation for violations assessed in a second or subsequent 

inspection during a calendar year. In determining the amount of any civil 

penalty imposed, the magnitude of the errors, corrective action taken by 

the retail store, history of such prior conduct, or other relevant 

information shall be considered. Penalties may only be imposed for:

 (1) Overcharges found in a sample selected using the procedures 

adopted pursuant to subdivision three of this section, when overcharges 

number more than two percent of the sample. Each such overcharge may 

be considered a separate violation provided, however, that any 

overcharge for a single stock-keeping unit that includes more than one 

item in such unit shall count as a single violation and not as separate 

violations for each item in the stock-keeping unit.

 (2) A large overcharge found on an individual item.

 (3) An overcharge verified in response to a consumer complaint.

 (4) Overcharges found on follow-up inspections of items ordered 

corrected.

 (5) Failure to disclose the retail price of a stock-keeping unit pursuant 

to paragraph a of subdivision two of this section.

 (6) Failure to conspicuously post a refund policy pursuant to paragraph 

d of subdivision two of this section.

 5. Local pricing laws. Nothing in this section shall be construed to 

prohibit a political subdivision of the state from continuing to implement 

and enforce any local pricing law or regulation in effect prior to the 

effective date of this section. Where a political subdivision has a local 

pricing law in effect prior to the effective date of this section, the 

provisions of this section shall have no force and effect until such time as 

the political subdivision repeals its local pricing law. Any political 

subdivision of the state not having any local pricing law or regulation in 
effect prior to the effective date of this section shall adopt and implement 

the pricing accuracy provisions set forth in this section or by regulations 

adopted pursuant to this section.

1. THE LAWS OF NEW YORK

2. CONSOLIDATED LAWS

3. AGRICULTURE & MARKETS

4. ARTICLE 17: ADULTERATION, PACKING, AND BRANDING OF FOOD AND FOOD 

PRODUCTS

SECTION 214-GLabeling Of Certain Frozen Foods

SECTION 214-JSmall Quantities Of Fruits And Vegetables

Section 214-HUnit pricing

Agriculture & Markets (AGM)

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1. Consumer information required. Each person who sells, offers or 

exposes for sale in a retail store a consumer commodity shall disclose to 

the consumer the unit price and the total price of the commodity as 

provided in this section.

 2. Definitions. a. "Consumer commodities" shall mean the following, 

however packaged or contained:

 (1) food, including all material, solid, liquid or mixed, whether simple or 

compound, used or intended for consumption by human beings or 

domestic animals normally kept as household pets and all substances or 
ingredients to be added thereto for any purpose; and

 (2) napkins, facial tissues, toilet tissues, foil wrapping, plastic wrapping, 

paper toweling, disposable plates; and

 (3) detergents, soaps and other cleansing agents; and

 (4) non-prescription drugs, female hygiene products and toiletries.

 b. "Retail store" shall mean a store which sells consumer commodities 

at retail, which store is not primarily engaged in the sale of food for 

consumption on the premises, or which is not primarily engaged in a 

specialty trade which the commissioner determines, by regulation, 

would be inappropriate for unit pricing. An establishment which sells 

consumer commodities only to its members shall be deemed to be 

included within this definition unless the members must pay a direct fee 

to qualify for membership and the establishment is not required to 

collect sales tax on transactions with members, pursuant to article 

twenty-eight of the tax law.

 c. "Unit price" of a consumer commodity shall mean the price per 

measure.

 d. "Price per measure" shall mean:

 (1) price per pound for commodities whose net quantity is expressed in 

units of weight, except for such commodities whose net weight is less 

than one ounce which shall be expressed as price per ounce and 

commodities in powdered form which purport to be or are represented 

for special dietary use solely as a food for infants by reason of its 

simulation of human milk or suitability as a complete or partial 

substitute for human milk which shall be expressed as price per 

reconstituted fluid ounce; provided that the same unit of measure is used 

for the same commodity in all sizes;

 (2) price per pint or quart for commodities whose net quantity is stated 
in fluid ounces, pints, quarts or gallons or a combination thereof, except 

for such commodities in concentrated liquid or ready to feed form which 

purport to be or are represented for special dietary use solely as a food 

for infants by reason of its simulation of human milk or suitability as a 

complete or partial substitute for human milk which shall be expressed 

as price per reconstituted fluid ounce for commodities in concentrated 

liquid form and price per fluid ounce for commodities in ready to feed 

form; provided that the same unit of measure is used for the same 

commodity in all sizes sold in the retail establishment;

 (3) price per one hundred for commodities whose net quantity is 

expressed by count, except as otherwise provided by regulation;

 (4) price per foot for commodities whose net quantity is stated in units 

of length, except for such commodities whose net quantity exceeds one 

hundred feet, which shall be expressed as price per one hundred feet, 

and the "ply" count, if any, provided that the same unit of measure is 

used for the same commodity in all sizes;

 (5) price per square foot or square yard, as appropriate, for 

commodities whose net quantity is expressed in units of area and the 

"ply" count, if any, provided that the same unit of measure is used for the 

same commodity in all sizes; or

 (6) such other price per measure, including metric equivalents of the 

customary measures, as the commissioner shall by regulation permit. 

The commissioner shall establish such metric equivalents whenever he 

determines that any commodity subject to the provisions of this section 

is being sold, offered or exposed for sale by metric measure.

 3. Exemptions. a. The provisions of this section shall not apply to the 

following consumer commodities:

 (1) food sold for consumption on the premises;

 (2) prepackaged food containing separate and identifiable kinds of food 
segregated by physical division within the package; and any other foods 

for which the commissioner determines, by rules and regulation, that 

unit pricing would not be meaningful;

 (3) any food which is primarily or exclusively a gourmet or specialty 

food, provided that the commissioner determines by regulation that unit 

pricing would be impractical for such food, and provided further that 

such food is segregated and displayed as a gourmet or specialty food;

 (4) any commodity whose net quantity as offered for sale is one pound, 

one ounce, one pint or quart, one hundred count, one foot, one hundred 

feet, one square foot, one square yard or equivalent metric units 

established by the commissioner, provided that it has the retail price 

marked plainly thereon;

 (5) milk, and other similar low fat products such as two percent milk, 

one percent milk and skim milk, cream, melloream and vegetable oil 

blend whose net quantity as offered for sale is one half pint, one pint, one 

quart, one half gallon, one gallon, one half liter, one liter; frozen desserts 

such as ice cream, light ice cream, low-fat ice cream, fat-free ice cream, 

sherbet, sorbet, frozen yogurt, and any other product similar in 

appearance, odor and taste to such products whose net quantity as 

offered for sale is one half pint, one pint, one quart, one half gallon, one 

gallon, and multiples of quarts and gallons; and butter, vegetable spread, 

oleo margarine and margarine whose net quantity is one fourth pound, 

one half pound, one pound or multiples of one pound, one hundred 

twenty-five grams, two hundred fifty grams, five hundred grams or 

multiples of five hundred grams, flour whose net quantity as offered for 

sale is in five or ten pound bags;

 (6) fresh food produce.

 b. The provisions of this section shall not apply to convenience stores 

which include small stores which typically sell motor fuel, tobacco 

products, fast food and beverages and do not offer sufficient quantity of 

consumer commodities to make unit pricing useful to consumers or to 
any retail store having had annual gross sales of consumer commodities 

in the previous calendar year of less than two and one-half million 

dollars, unless the store is a part of a network of subsidiaries, affiliates or 

other member stores, under direct or indirect common control, with five 

or more stores located in New York, which, as a group, had annual gross 

sales the previous calendar year of two and one-half million dollars or 

more of consumer commodities.

 4. Means of disclosure. A consumer commodity sold, or offered for sale 

or exposed for sale, subject to this section, shall have the unit price and 

total price disclosed to the consumer in one of the following ways:

 a. if the item is conspicuously visible to the consumer, by the 

attachment of a stamp, tag or label directly under the item on the shelf 

on which the item is displayed, or, in the case of refrigerated items not 

displayed on shelves, in a manner to be prescribed by regulation; or

 b. if the item is not conspicuously visible to the consumer, by a sign or 

list conspicuously placed near the point of procurement, or by affixing 

the unit price and total price on the commodity itself.

 5. The commissioner may promulgate regulations to effectuate this 

section.

 6. Nothing in this section shall be construed to conflict with or limit 

section one hundred ninety of this chapter.

 7. Violations and penalties. a. A violation of this section shall be subject 

to the applicable penalties of this chapter except for the penalties 

specified in section forty-one thereof.

 For purposes of this section, each group of identical consumer 

commodities for which on any single day the total selling price or price 

per measure is not displayed in accordance with this section or the 

regulations promulgated thereunder shall be considered a violation of 

this section. Improper unit pricing caused by nonintentional technical 
errors, however, shall not constitute a violation.

 b. Each group of units not unit priced or improperly unit priced shall 

constitute a violation. Each individual unit, however, not unit priced or 

improperly unit priced shall not constitute a violation unless displayed 

alone.

 c. Each day a violation is continued shall constitute a separate violation.

 d. The provisions of this section and the regulations promulgated 

hereunder may be enforced concurrently by the director of a municipal 

consumer affairs office or a municipal director of weights and measures.

 8. Preemption. Except as provided in paragraph b of subdivision three 

of this section, any local law, ordinance, rule or regulation relating to 

labeling, displaying or other disclosure of the price per measure of any 

commodity must be consistent with the provisions of this section and the 

rules and regulations adopted hereunder.