A. (1) After October 21, 1976, no person shall act in the capacity of a pesticide dealer, or shall engage or offer to engage in the business of, advertise as, or assume to act as a pesticide dealer unless he is licensed annually as provided in this chapter. A separate license and fee shall be obtained for each establishment from which restricted use pesticides are distributed, sold, held for sale, or offered for sale directly to the user or for resale.

(2) Applications for a pesticide dealer license shall be in the form and shall contain the information prescribed by the director. Each initial application shall be accompanied by a fee of fifty dollars; additional license for applicants at the same location shall be ten dollars per applicant. All licenses issued under this chapter shall expire on December thirty-first of the year for which they are issued.

(3) The license for a pesticide dealer may be renewed annually upon application to the director accompanied by a fee of fifty dollars for each license, on or before the first day of January of the calendar year for which the license is issued.

(4) Every licensed pesticide dealer who changes his address or place of business shall notify the director within ten days.

(5) The director shall issue to each applicant that satisfies the requirements of this chapter a license which entitles the applicant to conduct the business described in the application for the calendar year for which the license is issued, unless the license is sooner revoked or suspended.

(6) If an application for renewal of a pesticide dealer license is not filed on or prior to January first of any one year an additional fee of twenty-five percent of the original fee shall be assessed and added to the original fee and shall be paid by the applicant before the renewal license shall be issued; provided, that such additional fee shall not apply if the applicant furnishes an affidavit that he has not operated as a licensed pesticide dealer subsequent to the expiration of his prior license.

B. (1) An applicant for a license must present evidence satisfactory to the Director concerning his qualifications for such license. Each applicant for an original license must demonstrate upon written, or written and oral, examination to be prescribed by the Director his knowledge of pesticides, their usefulness and their hazards, his competence as a pesticide dealer; and his knowledge of the laws and regulations governing the use and sale of pesticides.

(2) The Director shall by regulation designate what persons or class of persons shall be required to pass the examination in the case of a pesticide dealer operating more than one location, and in the case of an applicant that is a corporation, governmental unit or agency, or other organized group.

C. (1) Every licensed pesticide dealer shall submit to the Director with each application for an original or renewal license, and at such other times as the Director may prescribe, the names of all persons employed by him who sell or recommend restricted-use pesticides.

(2) Each pesticide dealer shall be responsible for the actions of every person who acts as his employee or agent in the solicitation or sale of pesticides, and in all claims and recommendations for use of application of pesticides.

(3) Provisions of this section shall not apply to a licensed pesticide applicator who sells pesticides only as an integral part of his pesticide application service when such pesticides are dispensed only through equipment used for such pesticide application; or any federal, state, county, or municipal agency which provides pesticides only for its own programs.

D. The Director shall prescribe regulations requiring pesticide dealers to maintain such records with respect to their operations as necessary for the effective enforcement of this chapter.

After an opportunity for a hearing, the Director may require additional information to be included in these records.

E. No person shall sell a restricted use pesticide to an establishment in South Carolina from which such pesticides are sold, distributed, held for sale, or offered for sale unless the establishment is licensed as provided in this chapter.

HISTORY: 1975 (59) 284; 1979 Act No. 180 Sections 5-7; 2008 Act No. 353, Section 2, Pt 30A.4, eff July 1, 2008.