§ 1007. Furnishing tobacco to persons under 21 years of age; report

(a) A person that sells or furnishes tobacco products, tobacco substitutes, or tobacco paraphernalia to a person under 21 years of age shall be subject to a civil penalty of not more than $100.00 for the first offense and not more than $500.00 for any subsequent offense. An action under this section shall be brought in the same manner as for a traffic violation pursuant to 23 V.S.A. chapter 24 and shall be brought within 24 hours of the occurrence of the alleged violation.

(b)(1) The Division of Liquor Control shall conduct or contract for compliance tests of tobacco licensees as frequently and as comprehensively as necessary to ensure consistent statewide compliance with the prohibition on sales to persons under 21 years of age of at least 90 percent for buyers who are between 17 and 20 years of age. An individual under 21 years of age participating in a compliance test shall not be in violation of section 1005 of this title.

(2) Any violation by a tobacco licensee of subsection 1003(a) of this title and this section after a sale violation or during a compliance test conducted within six months of a previous violation shall be considered a multiple violation and shall result in the minimum license suspension in addition to any other penalties available under this title. Minimum license suspensions for multiple violations shall be assessed as follows:

(A) Two violations  two weekdays;

(B) Three violations  15-day suspension;

(C) Four violations  90-day suspension;

(D) Five violations  one-year suspension.

(3) The Division shall report to the House Committee on General, Housing, and Military Affairs, the Senate Committee on Economic Development, Housing and General Affairs, and the Tobacco Evaluation and Review Board annually, on or before January 15, the methodology and results of compliance tests conducted during the previous year. The provisions of 2 V.S.A. § 20(d) (expiration of required reports) shall not apply to the required report to be made under this subdivision. (Added 1991, No. 70, § 2; amended 1997, No. 58, § 6; 2013, No. 14, § 6; 2015, No. 131 (Adj. Sess.), § 2; 2017, No. 83, § 137; 2018, No. 1 (Sp. Sess.), § 85; 2019, No. 27, § 5, eff. Sept. 1, 2019; 2019, No. 73, § 16.)