N.Y. General Business Law § 350-d: Civil penalty

§ 350-d. Civil penalty. (a) Any person, firm, corporation or

association or agent or employee thereof who engages in any of the acts

or practices stated in this article to be unlawful shall be liable to a

civil penalty of not more than five thousand dollars for each violation,

which shall accrue to the state of New York and may be recovered in a

civil action brought by the attorney general. In any such action it

shall be a complete defense that the advertisement is subject to and

complies with the rules and regulations of, and the statutes

administered by the Federal Trade Commission or any official department,

division, commission or agency of the state of New York.

(b) Notwithstanding subdivision (a) of this section, any firm,

corporation or association or agent or employee thereof who engages in

any of the acts or practices stated in section three hundred forty-nine

of this article to be unlawful in connection with or during an abnormal

disruption of the market shall be liable to a civil penalty of not more

than fifteen thousand dollars for each violation or three times the

actual restitution needed, whichever is greater, which shall accrue to

the state of New York and may be recovered in a civil action brought by

the attorney general. In any such action it shall be a complete defense

that the advertisement is subject to and complies with the rules and

regulations of, and the statutes administered by the Federal Trade

Commission or any official department, division, commission or agency of

the state of New York. For the purposes of this subdivision, "abnormal

disruption of the market" shall mean any change in the market, whether

actual or imminently threatened, resulting from stress of weather,

convulsion of nature, failure or shortage of electric power or other

source of energy, strike, civil disorder, war, military action, national

or local emergency, or other cause of an abnormal disruption of the

market which results in the declaration of a state of emergency by the

governor.