Section 10-2-5. Powers and duties of Commissioner generally

   The Commissioner shall:

   (1) Maintain traceability of the State of Georgia's standards to the National Bureau of Standards;

   (2) Enforce this chapter;

   (3) Promulgate, adopt, and issue reasonable rules and regulations for the enforcement of this chapter. Such rules and regulations shall have the force and effect of law;

   (4) Establish standards of weight, measure, or count and reasonable standards of fill. The Commissioner is authorized to establish standards for the presentation of cost-per-unit information for any packaged commodity;

   (5) Grant any exemptions from this chapter or any rules or regulations promulgated pursuant thereto when appropriate to the maintenance of good commercial practices within the state;

   (6) Conduct investigations to ensure compliance with this chapter;

   (7) Delegate to appropriate personnel any of these responsibilities for the proper administration of his office;

   (8) Test the standards of weight and measure used by any inspector of the State of Georgia, adjust where necessary, and approve the same when found to be, or made to be, correct;

   (9) Inspect and test weights and measures kept, offered, or exposed for sale;

   (10) Inspect and test, to ascertain if they are correct, weights and measures commercially used:

      (A) In determining the weight, measure, or count of commodities or things sold, or offered or exposed for sale, on the basis of weight, measure, or count; or

      (B) In computing the basic charge or payment for services rendered on the basis of weight, measure, or count;

   (11) Test all weights and measures used in checking the receipt or disbursement of supplies in every institution for the maintenance of which funds are appropriated by the General Assembly;

   (12) Approve for use such weights and measures as he finds to be correct. The Commissioner, in his sole discretion, is authorized to mark approved weights and measures. He shall reject and mark as rejected any weights and measures he finds to be incorrect. Weights and measures that have been rejected may be seized if not corrected within the time specified or if used or disposed of in a manner not specifically authorized. The Commissioner shall condemn and may seize weights and measures found to be incorrect that are not capable of being made correct;

   (13) Employ, in carrying out this Code section, testing, inspection, and sampling procedures which are in accordance with this chapter, rules and regulations promulgated pursuant to this chapter, or procedures designated in Handbooks 130 and 133 of the National Institute of Standards and Technology;

   (14) Prescribe, by regulation, the appropriate term or unit of weight or measure to be used whenever he determines in the case of a specific commodity that an existing practice of declaring the quantity by weight, measure, numerical count, or combination thereof does not facilitate value comparisons by consumers or offers an opportunity for consumer confusion;

   (15) Establish, by regulation, a schedule of fees to cover the costs of the inspection and certification of weighing and measuring devices, the registration of scale mechanics, the certifying of weights, and scale registration; and

   (16) Allow reasonable variations from the stated quantity of contents. Such variations shall include those caused by loss or gain of moisture during the course of good distribution practices or by unavoidable deviations in good manufacturing practices only after the commodity has entered intrastate commerce.

Ga. L. 1941, p. 510, §§ 2, 3, 5; Ga. L. 1972, p. 654, § 1; Ga. L. 1991, p. 363, § 1; Ga. L. 1992, p. 1278, § 1; Ga. L. 1994, p. 97, § 10.