Jacqui Irwin

Existing law designates the Department of Food and Agriculture as the lead department in noxious weed management and requires the department, in cooperation with the Secretary of the Natural Resources Agency, to implement provisions relating to noxious weed management. Existing law prohibits a person from selling, distributing, or transporting into, or within, a weed-free area any seed of a noxious weed that the secretary has declared the area to be practically free from.

This bill would prohibit an online marketplace, as defined, from facilitating the sale or shipment of a noxious weed for delivery to an address located in the state. The bill would authorize the Secretary of Food and Agriculture, if an employee of the department acting within the course and scope of their regular duties and using existing resources identifies a shipment of a noxious weed and determines that the shipment originated from or occurred through a transaction conducted through an online marketplace in violation of this prohibition, to provide written notice, including specified information, to the online marketplace that it may be subject to an administrative penalty for violating this prohibition. The bill would authorize the Secretary of Food and Agriculture to levy a specified administrative penalty against an online marketplace for violating this prohibition if both the online marketplace received that written notice and, after any written notice, an employee of the department acting within the course and scope of their regular duties and using existing resources identifies a shipment of a noxious weed and determines that the shipment originated from or occurred through a transaction conducted through an online marketplace in violation of this prohibition, unless the marketplace demonstrates to the department that it has implemented and maintains reasonable controls, as defined. The bill would also authorize the Secretary of Food and Agriculture to levy a separate administrative penalty against an online marketplace to recover all reasonable costs associated with remediating any damage caused by a violation of this prohibition in an amount equal to those reasonable costs. The bill would require all moneys collected pursuant to these provisions to be deposited into the Department of Food and Agriculture Fund to, upon appropriation by the Legislature, cover costs related to the enforcement of provisions relating to plant quarantine and pest control. The bill would prohibit an online marketplace subject to an administrative penalty pursuant to these provisions from being subject to other fines or penalties for a violation of this prohibition.