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Weights
and Measures Information for New Businesses
City
of Madison
Whether
sole proprietor or corporation when a new business is
established in the City of Madison it needs to license any
and all of the weights and measures devices at the place
of business.
Devices that must be licensed include but are not
limited to scales, gas pumps and meters, scanner units,
timing devices and yardage measures.
Each device or unit will be charged a license fee
and will be inspected on an annual basis for compliance.
It
is important to contact the weights and measures office
prior to the purchase of devices to be assured that the
purchase will be legal for trade.
As of January 1, 1997 all new devices put into
retail use or used devices being moved to a new location
must be NTEP approved.
Having a National Type Evaluation Program (NTEP)
approval means that a prototype of the device was tested
and found to be adequate for retail use by NIST or
National Institute of Standards and Technology.
Once the testing is complete on that device make
and model a Certificate of Conformance (COC) is issued to
that device.
When a business purchases a device, the company
they purchased it from should be able to provide a copy of
the COC for that particular device.
The
licensing program requires the business to register the
devices they are using and pay a fee for each device.
The inspectors for the program will perform annual
inspections to insure that the devices are accurate and
correct. This
protects consumers from unfair business practices and
gives the consumers confidence that they are being treated
fairly by the business.
Other
items that are very important for businesses to understand
and comply with are taking of proper tare when weighing
products, using good business practices when changing
product prices, following the packaging and labeling law
for prepackaged products and making sure the method of
sale for particular items is correct.
We
have provided information on our website for each of the
above items.
*See
the basics of tare, the
basics of scanners,
ATCP
90 and ATCP
91.
If
you have any questions feel free to contact the weights
and measures office at 608-246-4515 or 246-4514.
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