Georgia § 10-13A-10 - Review of Attorney General's decision on removal from directory; certification of full compliance required; recovery of costs; conflicts with the Master Settlement Agreement.

§ 10-13A-10. Review of Attorney General's decision on removal from directory; certification of full compliance required; recovery of costs; conflicts with the Master Settlement Agreement.

A determination of the Attorney General to not include or to remove from the directory a brand family or tobacco product manufacturer shall be subject to review in the manner prescribed by Article 1 of Chapter 13 of Title 50, known as the "Georgia Administrative Procedure Act." No person shall be issued a license or granted a renewal of a license under Chapter 11 of Title 48 to act as a distributor unless such person has certified in writing that such person will comply fully with this chapter. The Attorney General may promulgate rules and regulations necessary to effect the purposes of this chapter. In any action brought by the state to enforce this chapter, the state shall be entitled to recover the costs of investigation, expert witness fees, costs of the action, and reasonable attorney fees. If a court of competent jurisdiction finds that the provisions of this chapter and of Chapter 13 of this title conflict and cannot be harmonized, then such provisions of Chapter 13 of this title shall control. If any section, subsection, subdivision, paragraph, sentence, clause, or phrase of this chapter causes Chapter 13 of this title to no longer constitute a qualifying or model statute, as those terms are defined in the Master Settlement Agreement, then that portion of this chapter shall not be valid. If any section, subsection, subdivision, paragraph, sentence, clause or phrase of this chapter is for any reason held to be invalid, unlawful, or unconstitutional, such decision shall not affect the validity of the remaining portions of this chapter or any part thereof. (Code 1981, § 10-13A-9 , enacted by Ga. L. 2003, p. 829, § 1; Code 1981, § 10-13A-10 , as redesignated by Ga. L. 2016, p. 528, § 3/HB 899.) The 2016 amendment, effective July 1, 2016, redesignated former Code Section 10-13A-9 as present Code Section 10-13A-10; deleted former subsection (c), which read: "The first report of distributors required by subsection (a) of Code Section 10-13A-7 shall be due 30 calendar days after July 1, 2003, the certifications by a tobacco product manufacturer described in subsection (a) of Code Section 10-13A-3 shall be due 45 calendar days after such date, and the directory described in Code Section 10-13A-4 shall be published or made available within 90 calendar days after such date."; and redesignated former subsections (d) through (f) as present subsections (c) through (e), respectively.