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STAFF REPORT
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Mayor and City Council
City Attorney
Item Pricing Ordinance
INTRODUCTION
This report transmits for second reading and adoption
an ordinance requiring food items to be individually priced
in grocery and other retail stores. The Council introduced
this ordinance at the November 13, 1979, meeting (Item 8C ).
BACKGROUND
This ordinance requires grocery stores and other types
of stores that sell food items. in the City of Santa Monica
to use a labeling system called "Item Pricing", which
requires easily legible prices in arabic numerals on individual
packages and cans. This protection is currently provided on
a statewide level in Business and Professions Code Section
13300 et. seq.; this law expires January i, 1980. The Santa
Monica Ordinance would enact the provisions of this law
on a local level, by adding Chapter 8 to Article IV of the
Municipal Code.
The ordinance as introduced by the Council differs from
the draft version in the following respects:
1. The law applies to all retail grocery stores and
grocery departments within general retail stores; the existence
of an automatic check-out system is not a prerequisite.
Therefore, the references to automatic check-out systems~mQV G
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in Section 4801(a) and (c) have been deleted.
2. The law contains an additional exemption for
consumer-owned cooperative food stores, that sell
only to cooperative members and not to the general public.
Therefore, Section 4801(b)(6) has been added.
3. The Council authorized the creation of a
private cause of action for violation of the law, accruing
to single plaintiffs and not to multiple plaintiffs or
class actions. Therefore, Section 4802(f) was added, to permit
an individual to recover actual losses and expenses and
civil penalties as provided in Section 48C2(a).
ALTERNATIVES
The Council may adopt the ordinance as introduced,
modify it, or reject it.
RECOPIMENDATION
It is respectfully recommended that the Council
adopt the ordinance as introduced.
Prepared by: Richard L. Knickerbocker
S~'ephen S, Stark
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