Senate Bill No. 617
(By Senator Prezioso)
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[Introduced March 26, 2001; referred to the Committee on the Judiciary.]
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A BILL to amend article two, chapter forty-six-a of the code of West Virginia, one thousand nine hundred thirty-one, as amended, by adding thereto a new section, designated section one hundred forty, relating to providing that a retail merchant selling goods or services must destroy, by shredding or other means, all physical receipts or records of a consumer credit card transaction retained by the retail merchant when retention of the physical receipts or records is no longer required for a valid legal purpose; and penalties.

Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:
That article two, chapter forty-six-a of the code of West Virginia, one thousand nine hundred thirty-one, as amended, be amended by adding thereto a new section, designated section one hundred forty, to read as follows:

§46A-2-140. Retail merchants required to destroy consumer credit card receipts.

(a) A retail merchant selling goods or services to a consumer purchasing those goods or services with a credit card must destroy, by shredding or other means, all physical receipts or records of the credit card transaction retained by the retail merchant, at such time that retention of the physical receipts or records is no longer required for a valid legal purpose.
(b) Any person convicted of a first offense violation of the provisions of subsection (a) of this section is guilty of a misdemeanor and, upon conviction thereof, shall be fined not more than five hundred dollars, or imprisoned in the county or regional jail not more than one year, or both fined and imprisoned. Any person convicted of a second offense violation of the provisions of subsection (a) of this section is guilty of a misdemeanor and, upon conviction thereof, shall be fined not more than one thousand dollars, or imprisoned in the county or regional jail not more than one year, or both fined and imprisoned. Any person convicted of a third or subsequent offense violation of the provisions of subsection (a) of this section is guilty of a felony and, upon conviction thereof, shall be fined not more than five thousand dollars, or imprisoned in a state correctional facility not less than one year nor more than five years, or both fined and imprisoned.
(c) Any person violating the provisions of subsection (a) of this section is liable in civil action for compensatory and punitive damages.

NOTE: The purpose of this bill is to prevent credit card fraud by providing that a retail merchant selling goods or services must destroy, by shredding or other means, all physical receipts or records of a consumer credit card transaction retained by the retail merchant, when retention of the physical receipts or records is no longer required for a valid legal purpose.

This section is new; therefore, strike-throughs and underscoring have been omitted.