Special business regulations: shopping carts.

Existing law authorizes a city, county, or city and county to impound a shopping cart that has a specified permanently affixed sign if certain conditions are satisfied, including that the city, county, or city and county provides 3-day advance actual notice of the shopping cart's discovery and location to the owner of the shopping cart or their agent, except as specified. This bill would authorize a city, county, or city and county, pursuant to an ordinance, to retrieve and return a shopping cart to the parking area or premises of the owner or retailer identified on the affixed sign, as specified, and to recover its actual costs for the retrieval and return, not to exceed $100 per shopping cart. The bill would also require actual notice for purposes of these provisions to include proof that the notice was delivered to the owner or their agent, as specified, and require the city, county, or city and county to maintain a record of that proof of delivery. Existing law authorizes the city, county, or city and county to fine the owner of a shopping cart in an amount not to exceed $50 for each occurrence in excess of 3 during a specified 6-month period for failure to retrieve shopping carts in accordance with specified law. The bill would authorize a city, county, or city and county to fine the owner of a shopping cart in an amount not to exceed $100 instead of $50 for each occurrence pursuant to the provisions described above.