214-h. Unit pricing. 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.
Last modified: February 3, 2019