Prohibits food-service and retail establishments from refusing to accept cash as payment for goods or services; calls for a civil fine if an establishment should refuse cash as payment.
STATE OF NEW YORK
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326
2023-2024 Regular Sessions
IN SENATE(Prefiled)
January 4, 2023
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Introduced by Sen. GOUNARDES -- read twice and ordered printed, and when
printed to be committed to the Committee on Consumer Protection
AN ACT to amend the general business law, in relation to prohibiting
retail establishments from refusing to accept payment in cash
The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assem-bly, do enact as follows:
1 Section 1. The general business law is amended by adding a new section
2 396-ii to read as follows:
3 § 396-ii. Cashless policies prohibited. a. As used in this section,
4 the following terms shall have the following meanings:
5 (i) "Food-service establishment" shall mean an establishment which
6 gives or offers for sale food or beverages to the public for consumption
7 or use on or off the premises.
8 (ii) "Retail establishment" shall mean an establishment in which
9 consumer commodities are sold, displayed or offered for sale, or which
10 provides services to consumers at retail.
11 b. It shall be unlawful for a food-service establishment or a retail
12 establishment, as policy, to refuse to accept payment in cash from
13 consumers.
14 c. A food-service establishment or retail establishment violating this
15 section is liable for a civil penalty of not more than twenty-five
16 hundred dollars for the first violation and a civil penalty of not more
17 than five thousand dollars for each succeeding violation.
18 d. The department of labor may promulgate such rules as it deems
19 necessary to implement and enforce this section.
20 § 2. This act shall take effect immediately.
EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
[] is old law to be omitted.
LBD01516-01-3
