15 U.S.C. § 377 — Penalties

(a) Criminal penalties. (1) Anyone who knowingly violates this chapter can be imprisoned for up to 3 years, fined under title 18, or both — unless one of the exceptions below applies. (2) This penalty does not apply to a state, local, or tribal government. A common carrier, an independent delivery service, or an employee of either can face this criminal penalty for violating the list-based delivery ban in section 376a(e) only if they did it knowingly, and only if they did it either in exchange for money or something of value, or as payment for a promise of that, or in order to help a delivery seller break the law or dodge compliance with section 376a. (b) Civil penalties. (1) Anyone who violates this chapter, aside from the exceptions in (3), can also face a civil fine. For a delivery seller, the fine is the larger of $5,000 for a first violation (or $10,000 for any later one), or 2 percent of the seller's cigarette and smokeless tobacco sales over the past year — whichever amount is bigger. For a common carrier or other delivery service, the fine is $2,500 for a first violation, or $5,000 for a violation within a year of an earlier one. (2) This civil fine comes on top of any criminal penalty under (a), and on top of any other damages or court-ordered relief, including unpaid taxes owed to the government. (3) An employee of a carrier or delivery service can face this civil penalty for a section 376a(e) violation only if they acted intentionally, and only for the same two reasons listed above — payment, or helping a seller evade the law. A common carrier or independent delivery service itself is not subject to this civil penalty for a section 376a(e) violation if it has put in place and actually enforces effective policies for complying with that section, or if the violation happened because an employee who handles orders, packages, or deliveries acted outside the scope of their job or broke the carrier's own enforced policies.