South Carolina § 39-5-350 - Exemptions.

§ 39-5-350. Exemptions.

(A) No part of this article shall be construed to apply to sales at wholesale to hotels, restaurants, colleges, bona fide licensed contractors, farmers buying for their plantations, including labor on their own farms, boardinghouses, religious institutions, or county, city, federal, or state institutions or departments or to cooperative purchases for redistribution among farmers. Retail sales of merchandise of like grade and quality at a price to meet existing competition at any time in any town or locality are also exempt from the provisions of this article. But if such competition is created by any person in violation of this article or when any two or more persons contend that they are meeting the competition of the other and all would be making retail sales in violation of this article, except for the above provisions allowing existing competition to be met, any retailer affected thereby may enjoin all in such category from continuing such practices in any court of competent jurisdiction in this State.

(B) Any person selling motor fuel at wholesale or retail at a price below the actual cost of acquiring the product, including transportation and taxes, claiming exemption from this article on the basis that such sales of motor fuel by that person are at a price to meet existing competition under subsection (A) shall keep and maintain records substantiating each effort to meet the competition, including the identity and place of business of the competitors whose competition that person is meeting. The records must be made available to the Attorney General on request made in connection with any investigation of a possible violation of this article by the Attorney General.

HISTORY: 1962 Code SECTION 66-85; 1952 Code SECTION 66-85; 1942 Code SECTION 6640; 1939 (41) 425; 1993 Act No. 161, SECTION 2, eff sixty days after approval (approved June 15, 1993); 2017 Act No. 29 (S.359), SECTION 2, eff May 10, 2017.

Effect of Amendment

The 1993 amendment designated the existing material subsection (A) and added subsection (B).

2017 Act No. 29, SECTION 2, in (B), deleted "of this section" following "under subsection (A)", deleted "the Department of Consumer Affairs and" following "made available to", and deleted "department or the" following "possible violation of this article by the".