Breach of the rules on importing, producing and selling plastic and biodegradable bags (Art. 82⁵)

Is confiscation an alternative to the fine, or in addition to it?

In addition. Both the first-breach and the repeated-breach provisions read as a fine "with confiscation of the relevant goods". The confiscation does not reduce the monetary sanction. The only situation in which the structure changes is where confiscation cannot be carried out, and there the law adds the quantity-based component instead.

Does the article apply to biodegradable bags as well as plastic ones?

Yes. The wording covers plastic and/or biodegradable bags, and the technical regulation it refers to is named as the rules on the regulation of plastic and biodegradable bags. Describing a product as biodegradable does not on its own place it outside Article 82⁵.

The bags were already sold before the inspection. How is the fine worked out?

That is the branch where confiscation is impossible, so the fine is 1,000 GEL — or 2,000 GEL if the breach is repeated — plus the detected quantity multiplied by 0.25 GEL. The quantity figure therefore drives the total, and how it was established is a legitimate subject of dispute.

We were penalised at another branch last year. Does that make this breach repeated?

Article 82⁵ speaks of repeated commission of the same act and sets no rule of its own, either for branches or for the period involved; those come from the general provisions of the Code. What the article does fix is the consequence: on repetition the base is 2,000 GEL instead of 1,000 GEL, again with confiscation of the goods.

4 min·22 Aug 2026

What Article 82⁵ actually covers

Article 82⁵ of the Administrative Offences Code of Georgia protects one specific obligation: when plastic and/or biodegradable bags are imported into the territory of Georgia, produced, and/or sold, the requirements of the technical regulation — the "Rules on the regulation of plastic and biodegradable bags" — must be met. The offence can be recorded at any of those three stages, and the article treats them as equivalent: goods arriving at the border, goods coming off a production line, and goods sitting on a shop shelf all fall under the same provision. Liability is placed on the entrepreneurial entity. In practice that means the protocol is drawn up against the business rather than against the individual employee who handed a bag to a customer, and the fine is collected from the business. If you import, manufacture, distribute or retail these products in Georgia, this article is written about your operation, whether or not you produced the bags yourself.

The sanction the article sets

Article 82⁵ produces four possible outcomes, and which one applies is decided by two questions: is this a first breach or a repeated one, and is confiscation of the goods possible?

First breach, confiscation possible — a fine of 1,000 GEL on the entrepreneurial entity, together with confiscation of the relevant goods;
First breach, confiscation impossible — a fine of 1,000 GEL plus the number of plastic or biodegradable bags detected (the object of the offence) multiplied by 0.25 GEL;
Repeated breach, confiscation possible — a fine of 2,000 GEL, together with confiscation of the relevant goods;
Repeated breach, confiscation impossible — a fine of 2,000 GEL plus the number of bags detected multiplied by 0.25 GEL.

The article provides no other amount, and confiscation is not an alternative to the fine — the law attaches it to the fine rather than offering a choice between them. The quantity-based component appears only in the branch where the goods can no longer be taken.

Updated: 14 Oct 2026

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