Any licensee or public utility which willfully fails, within the time prescribed by the Commission, to comply with any order of the Commission, to file any report required under this chapter or any rule or regulation of the Commission thereunder, to submit any information or document required by the Commission in the course of an investigation conducted under this chapter, or to appear by an officer or agent at any hearing or investigation in response to a subpena issued under this chapter, shall forfeit to the United States an amount not exceeding $1,000 to be fixed by the Commission after notice and opportunity for hearing. The imposition or payment of any such forfeiture shall not bar or affect any penalty prescribed in this chapter but such forfeiture shall be in addition to any such penalty.

The forfeitures provided for in this chapter shall be payable into the Treasury of the United States and shall be recoverable in a civil suit in the name of the United States, brought in the district where the person is an inhabitant or has his principal place of business, or if a licensee or public utility, in any district in which such licensee or public utility transacts business. It shall be the duty of the various United States attorneys, under the direction of the Attorney General of the United States, to prosecute for the recovery of forfeitures under this chapter. The costs and expenses of such prosecution shall be paid from the appropriations for the expenses of the courts of the United States.

This section shall not apply in the case of any provision of section 824j, 824k, 824l, or 824m of this title or any rule or order issued under any such provision.

(June 10, 1920, ch. 285, pt. III, § 315, as added Aug. 26, 1935, ch. 687, title II, § 213, 49 Stat. 861; amended June 25, 1948, ch. 646, § 1, 62 Stat. 909; Pub. L. 102–486, title VII, § 725(a), Oct. 24, 1992, 106 Stat. 2920; Pub. L. 109–58, title XII, § 1295(d), Aug. 8, 2005, 119 Stat. 985.)