3.2-5126 - Prohibited acts; exceptions; Commissioner may seek injunction; penalties.
§ 3.2-5126. Prohibited acts; exceptions; Commissioner may seek injunction;penalties.
A. The following acts and causing the following acts within the Commonwealthare unlawful:
1. The manufacture, sale, or delivery, holding or offering for sale of anyfood that is adulterated or misbranded.
2. The adulteration or misbranding of any food.
3. The receipt in commerce of any food that is adulterated or misbranded, andthe delivery or proffered delivery thereof for pay or otherwise.
4. The dissemination of any false advertisement.
5. The refusal to permit entry or inspection, or to permit the taking of asample, as authorized by § 3.2-5102.
6. The giving of a guaranty or undertaking concerning a food, which guarantyor undertaking is false.
7. The alteration, mutilation, destruction, obliteration, or removal of thewhole or any part of the labeling of, or the performing of any other act withrespect to a food, if such act is done while an article is held for sale andresults in the article being misbranded.
8. Forging, counterfeiting, simulating, or falsely representing, or withoutproper authority using any mark, stamp, tag, label, or other means ofidentification authorized or required by regulations adopted under theprovisions of this article.
9. The use of sulfiting agents as preservatives on raw fruits and vegetablesbeing offered for sale to the public for human consumption.
B. Any person who violates any of the provisions of subsection A is guilty ofa Class 1 misdemeanor.
C. A wholesale or retail merchant who purchases food or drink in a closedcontainer from a reputable manufacturer shall not be in violation ofsubsection A unless such person knowingly violated the provisions ofsubsection A. It shall not be a violation of subdivision A 1, A 3 or A 6, ifa person can establish that he relied upon a guaranty or undertaking signedby the individual from or through whom he received any food in good faith, tothe effect that such food is not adulterated or misbranded. The guaranty orundertaking shall contain the name and address of the person who provided theguaranty or undertaking, or a place of business, or an agent orrepresentative on whom process may be served, in the Commonwealth.
D. No publisher, broadcaster, or agency or medium for the dissemination of anadvertisement, except the manufacturer, packer, distributor, or seller of thearticle to which a false advertisement relates, shall be liable under thissection by reason of the dissemination by him of such false advertisement,unless he has refused, on the request of the Commissioner to furnish the nameand post-office address of the manufacturer, packer, distributor, seller, oradvertising agency, residing in the Commonwealth who caused him todisseminate such advertisement.
E. The Commissioner may apply to an appropriate court for, and such courtshall have jurisdiction upon hearing and for cause shown to grant, atemporary or permanent injunction restraining any person from violating anyprovision of subsection A, regardless of whether or not an adequate remedy atlaw exists. But whenever it appears to the satisfaction of the court in thecase of a newspaper, periodical, or other publication that: (i) restrainingthe dissemination of a false advertisement in any particular issue of suchpublication would delay the delivery of such issue; and (ii) such delay wouldbe due to the method by which the manufacture and distribution of suchpublication is customarily conducted by the publisher in accordance withsound business practice, and not to any method or device adopted for theevasion of this section or to prevent or delay the issuance of an injunctionor restraining order with respect to such false advertisement or any otheradvertisement, the court shall exclude such issue from the operation of therestraining order or injunction.
(Code 1950, §§ 3-308 to 3-310, 3-344; 1956, c. 529; 1966, c. 702, §§ 3.1-388,3.1-389, 3.1-390, 3.1-423; 1986, c. 200; 2005, c. 681; 2008, c. 860.)