View all text of Part A [§ 7521 - § 7554]
§ 7524. Civil penalties
(a) Violations
(b) Civil actions
(c) Administrative assessment of certain penalties
(1) Administrative penalty authority
(2) Determining amount
(3) Effect of Administrator’s action
(A) Action by the Administrator under this subsection shall not affect or limit the Administrator’s authority to enforce any provision of this chapter; except that any violation,
(i) with respect to which the Administrator has commenced and is diligently prosecuting an action under this subsection, or
(ii) for which the Administrator has issued a final order not subject to further judicial review and the violator has paid a penalty assessment under this subsection,
shall not be the subject of civil penalty action under subsection (b).
(B) No action by the Administrator under this subsection shall affect any person’s obligation to comply with any section of this chapter.
(4) Finality of order
(5) Judicial review
(6) CollectionIf any person fails to pay an assessment of a civil penalty imposed by the Administrator as provided in this subsection—
(A) after the order making the assessment has become final, or
(B) after a court in an action brought under paragraph (5) has entered a final judgment in favor of the Administrator,
the Administrator shall request the Attorney General to bring a civil action in an appropriate district court to recover the amount assessed (plus interest at rates established pursuant to section 6621(a)(2) of title 26 from the date of the final order or the date of the final judgment, as the case may be). In such an action, the validity, amount, and appropriateness of the penalty shall not be subject to review. Any person who fails to pay on a timely basis the amount of an assessment of a civil penalty as described in the first sentence of this paragraph shall be required to pay, in addition to that amount and interest, the United States’ enforcement expenses, including attorneys fees and costs for collection proceedings, and a quarterly nonpayment penalty for each quarter during which such failure to pay persists. The nonpayment penalty shall be in an amount equal to 10 percent of the aggregate amount of that person’s penalties and nonpayment penalties which are unpaid as of the beginning of such quarter.
(July 14, 1955, ch. 360, title I, § 205, as added Pub. L. 89–272, title I, § 101(8), Oct. 20, 1965, 79 Stat. 994; amended Pub. L. 90–148, § 2, Nov. 21, 1967, 81 Stat. 500; Pub. L. 91–604, § 7(c), Dec. 31, 1970, 84 Stat. 1694; Pub. L. 95–95, title II, § 219(c), Aug. 7, 1977, 91 Stat. 762; Pub. L. 101–549, title II, § 228(c), Nov. 15, 1990, 104 Stat. 2508.)