455C.12  Penalties.
  1.  Any person violating the provisions of section 455C.2, 455C.3, or 455C.5, or a rule adopted under this chapter, shall be guilty of a simple misdemeanor.
  2.  A distributor who collects or attempts to collect a refund value on an empty beverage container when the distributor has paid the refund value on the container to a participating dealer, redemption center, or consumer is guilty of a fraudulent practice.
  3.  Any person who does any of the following acts is guilty of a fraudulent practice:
  a.  Collects or attempts to collect the refund value on the container a second time, with the knowledge that the refund value has once been paid by the distributor to a participating dealer, redemption center, or consumer.
  b.  Manufactures, sells, possesses, or applies a false or counterfeit label or indication that shows or purports to show a refund value for a beverage container, with intent to use the false or counterfeit label or indication.
  c.  Collects or attempts to collect a refund value on a container with the use of a false or counterfeit label or indication showing a refund value, knowing the label or indication to be false or counterfeit.
  4.  As used in this section, a false or counterfeit label or indication means a label or indication purporting to show a valid refund value which has not been initially applied as authorized by a distributor.
  5.  Subsection 2 and subsection 3, paragraph “a”, of this section have no application to empty beverage containers which are intended to be refillable and are in a standard of condition except for sanitization to be refillable by the manufacturer.
  6.  A person who knowingly attempts to redeem a beverage container that is not properly marked as required by section 455C.5, subsection 1, shall be subject to a civil penalty not to exceed ten dollars per improperly marked beverage container, but not to exceed five thousand dollars total per attempted transaction.
  7.  Except as provided in subsection 6, a person who violates any provision of this chapter shall be subject to a civil penalty of two thousand dollars per violation, which shall be assessed and collected in the same manner as provided in section 455B.109. Any civil penalty collected under this chapter shall be deposited in the bottle bill fund established in section 455C.12D.
[C79, 81, §455C.12]
2013 Acts, ch 12, §11; 2022 Acts, ch 1139, §9, 10, 20
Referred to in §455C.12D
Fraudulent practices, see §714.8 – 714.14