59.55 Consumer protection.

(1) County consumer protection agency.

(a) In this subsection:

1. “Consumer complaint" means a complaint received by a consumer protection agency from an individual.

2. “County consumer protection agency" means an agency created or designated under this subsection.

(b) A county may create or designate a consumer protection agency which may:

1. Maintain an office in the county.

2. Receive and maintain records of consumer complaints.

3. Upon receipt of a consumer complaint, conduct an investigation to determine the validity of the complaint.

4. Notify the person responsible for the cause of the complaint of the nature of the complaint.

5. Assist in the resolution of the complaint.

6. Refer complaints:

a. To the appropriate state department or independent agency; or

b. To the district attorney.

7. Maintain follow-up records on all complaints referred to state departments or independent agencies or the district attorney.

(c) A county consumer protection agency created under this subsection shall report at least once every 6 months to the board on the actions and activities of the agency.

(2) Testing milk and soil. The board may appropriate money and provide office and laboratory space for testing milk and soil and may provide residents of the county with reports of such tests.

(3) Truckers, hawkers and peddlers licensing. Except in counties having a population of 750,000 or more, the board may enact ordinances providing for the licensing of truckers, hawkers and peddlers, other than licensees under s. 440.51, and provide for the enforcement of the ordinances. The ordinances shall not provide for licensing of fuel vendors or those engaged in the delivery of petroleum products or farmers or truck gardeners who sell farm products grown by themselves.

(4) Transient merchants. Counties may, by ordinance, regulate the retail sales, other than auction sales, made by transient merchants, as defined in s. 130.065 (1m), 1987 stats., in the towns in the county and provide forfeitures for violations of those ordinances.

(5) Secondhand car dealers, junking cars. The board may license and regulate dealers in secondhand motor vehicles, wreckers of motor vehicles, or the conduct of motor vehicle junking. Such regulation shall not apply to any municipality which enacts an ordinance governing the same subject.

(6) Regulation of obscenity. The board may enact an ordinance to prohibit conduct that is the same as that prohibited by s. 944.21. A county may bring an action for a violation of the ordinance regardless of whether the attorney general has determined under s. 165.25 (3m) that an action may be brought. The ordinance may provide for a forfeiture not to exceed $10,000 for each violation.

History: 1995 a. 201 ss. 130, 131, 152, 178, 240, 368, 452; 2017 a. 207 s. 5.