Weights and measures: the scale in view and net weight on the package

This is the law behind the seal on the grocery store’s scale and the one next to the meat case. Its useful part for a customer is not the system of official standards but four counter rules: the scale must be readable and the weighing watchable, the establishment must have scales within your reach to verify packages, less than what the package says may not be sold, and the package must state net weight without hiding behind an "approximately".

Any buyer at a commercial establishment in Puerto Rico selling items by weight or measure. There is no procedure: these are the business’s obligations and they apply by law. Section 15 carries an express exception worth knowing: the rule on selling liquids by liquid measure or by weight, and on selling non-liquid items by weight, shall not apply to items served for immediate consumption on the premises where they are sold.

• Shopping at a commercial establishment selling items by weight or measure. The obligations fall on the business and require no prior step from the customer.Verified against the official source

• The package and the receipt. The package is where the net weight must appear clearly and conspicuously; the receipt is where you check how the price was computed.

1. 1

   Step 1: You have the right to watch the weighing

   Section 10 has two parts and the second is the one people do not know. The first prohibits using or possessing, for any commercial purpose, weights or measures that are incorrect or altered in their balance or any part of their mechanism, with which delivery of false weight or measure could be facilitated. The second says that neither shall weights or measures be kept or used for commercial purposes **positioned so that their readings cannot be read accurately and the weighing or measuring operations cannot be observed by the customer**. The law writes two exceptions and only two: when an item is packed before being put on sale, and in medical prescriptions. Outside those, a scale turned toward the employee is exactly what this section prohibits.

2. 2

   Step 2: The scale within your reach to verify packages

   Section 14 is the most concrete of all. Every commercial establishment selling items by weight or measure must be provided with weighing or measuring devices. And it adds: in those where pre-packaged goods are displayed, offered or exposed for sale, **one or more scales must be installed within consumers’ reach so they can verify the packages’ weight**. The law says who decides how many: the number of scales shall be determined by the Administrator, taking into account the establishment’s linear extension. And it closes with a detail that lets you trust that scale: these instruments shall be considered commercial and must be sealed by the Administrator. That is, the verification scale is not a supermarket courtesy: it is a requirement, and it must be sealed like any other commercial scale.

3. 3

   Step 3: Less than indicated is illegal

   Section 15 says it plainly: it shall be illegal to sell, offer or display for sale a lesser quantity than the one indicated for any item or service. The rest of the section orders the forms of sale: liquid items shall be sold by liquid measure or by weight, and non-liquid items shall be sold only by weight, it being understood that items commonly sold that way may be sold by linear measure, area, theoretical weight, capacity measure and by units. And it carries the exception: this provision shall not apply to items served for immediate consumption on the premises where they are sold.

4. 4

   Step 4: The package and the forbidden words

   Section 16 is the most breached and the easiest to check. Every package must state on its exterior, clearly and conspicuously, the net weight, measure, quantity or units, as applicable. Packages not subject to sale at the place where the packing occurs must additionally state the packer’s or distributor’s name and address. And then comes the literal prohibition: **it shall be illegal to use terms such as "Approximately", "when packed", "when cut", or any similar expression**. The law closes the door on ambiguity with a definition: the word weight, as used in this Act, shall be understood as net weight. There are exemptions set by size: exempt from the net content declaration requirement are packages under half an "avoirdupois" ounce or under half a fluid ounce, or those containing fewer than six (6) units that can be easily counted without opening the package; and in cosmetics, packages weighing less than a quarter "avoirdupois" ounce or containing less than an eighth of a fluid ounce.

5. 5

   Step 5: The price is regulated too

   Section 17 closes the circle: it shall be illegal to misstate or compute the price of any item or service sold, displayed, offered or advertised for sale by weight, measure or units, in a way tending to defraud the buyer. It is the rule covering the case where the weight is right but the multiplication is not. And two nearby sections protect the seal that makes all the above trustworthy: Section 11 makes it illegal not to correct rejected weights or measures within the reasonable term granted, and prohibits using or disposing of them until they have been re-examined and certified correct or until the Administrator has permitted it in writing; Section 12 makes it illegal to remove, or permit the removal of, any seal, label or mark placed by the Administrator or the Weights and Measures staff.

6. 6

   Step 6: Who the "Administrator" in this law is today

   Worth clarifying because the law is from 1968 and names entities that no longer exist under those names. Section 2 defines "Administrator" as the Administrator of the Economic Stabilization Administration, and OGP’s compilation adds a note tracing the chain: that Administration was created by Act 97-1953; its functions and duties were transferred to the Consumer Affairs Administration by Act 148-1968; and that Administration was abolished by Act 5 of 1973, which created the Department of Consumer Affairs and transferred all its powers and functions to it. We reproduce that chain as OGP’s note gives it. Consistent with that, Section 26 — the modern fines article — says the money collected shall go into the Department of Consumer Affairs’ funds to strengthen the Department’s available resources for consumer protection.

7. 7

   Step 7: The fines

   Section 26 is the one used today: in cases of violation of this Chapter’s provisions or of any regulation, order or resolution approved under it, the Secretary is empowered to impose and collect administrative fines, provided that the administrative fine shall not exceed ten thousand (10,000) dollars per infraction and that **payment of that fine shall bar criminal prosecution**. Each time the same violation is incurred it shall be considered a separate violation. The law also retains criminal penalties in earlier sections, with fines ranging from fifty to a thousand dollars depending on the offense and repetition, and jail in some scenarios. And Section 27 gives ten (10) days following the issuance of a regulation, order or resolution for any directly affected person to file a written petition for reconsideration, specifying their objections.

Before the Department of Consumer Affairs. The law speaks of the "Administrator" and the "Weights and Measures Division", and OGP’s note on Section 2 traces how those functions reached DACO; Section 26 confirms it by directing the fine money to the Department of Consumer Affairs’ funds. Section 7 gives that staff police power to enforce the law, and Section 6 collects the Administrator’s powers and duties. What we do not publish: the form, address or procedure to file a weights and measures complaint, or how long it takes, because Act 145-1968 does not set them; that is why processing time stays unverified.

• Accepting a scale turned toward the employee: the law requires the weighing operations to be observable by the customer.
• Not using the verification scale: where pre-packaged goods are displayed there must be one or more within consumers’ reach.
• Accepting a package saying "approximately", "when packed" or "when cut": those terms are illegal.
• Assuming "weight" may be gross weight: the law defines weight as net weight.
• Not checking whether the Administrator’s seal is on the scale, or noticing if someone removed it.
• Throwing away the package when complaining, when it is the evidence of the declared weight.
• Complaining about a dish served for immediate consumption on the premises: Section 15 excepts it from the rule on forms of sale.

These are the government pages this guide is based on.

• Departamento de Asuntos del Consumidor (DACO)

  DACO

  bvirtualogp.pr.gov

• Department of Consumer Affairs (DACO)

  DACO

  www.daco.pr.gov