What Article 155¹ actually covers
Article 155¹ of the Georgian Code of Administrative Offences deals with the circulation of light, medium and heavy petroleum distillates — the product group that in practice captures most fuel and refined petroleum products. The article separates two forms of conduct. The first is trading in these distillates from a non-stationary trading facility. The second is any other breach of the rules on selling, transporting and storing them.
That second wording is deliberately broad. The law sets out no closed list of breaches; it points to the rules on sale, transport and storage, which are laid down in separate acts. So a case here can turn not only on where the fuel was sold, but on how it was carried and what it was kept in. The article names no separate category of person as the addressee of the fine — the text describes conduct, so the question arises against whoever carried that conduct out, whether an individual trader, a driver, or a company.
What the law provides — the actual fines
Article 155¹ has three parts, and each carries its own fixed fine. These are not points on one continuous range: which amount applies depends entirely on which part the authority matches your conduct to.
- Part 1 — trading from a non-stationary trading facility, or any other breach of the rules on selling, transporting or storing the distillates: a fine of 500 GEL.
- Part 2 — the same act committed in a large quantity, or committed by a person on whom an administrative penalty has already been imposed for such a breach within one year: a fine of 5,000 GEL.
- Part 3 — the act described in Part 1, committed in an especially large quantity: a fine of 30,000 GEL.
In all three cases the law names a single fixed sum rather than a minimum-to-maximum bracket. That has a practical consequence: a dispute under this article is rarely an argument about reducing the amount, but about whether the right part was chosen.
When the fine rises — quantity and repetition
The article carries a note that fixes the thresholds precisely. A large quantity means more than 200 litres of light, medium or heavy petroleum distillates. An especially large quantity means more than 2,000 litres. Those two figures are what sort a case between the 500, 5,000 and 30,000 GEL fines.
Both thresholds are worded as "more than", and that wording does work: exactly 200 litres does not yet make a large quantity, and exactly 2,000 does not yet make an especially large one. Three tiers follow from those two figures alone: a quantity that does not exceed 200 litres stays in Part 1 at 500 GEL; more than 200 litres moves the case to Part 2 at 5,000 GEL; more than 2,000 litres moves it to Part 3 at 30,000 GEL.
This is why the accuracy of the measurement matters so much — the capacity of the containers, whether residue was counted in, whether several containers were added together. Near either threshold a few litres decide which part applies, and the fine at that point does not rise gradually but jumps.
Part 2 also has a second, independent basis. The 5,000 GEL fine applies where an administrative penalty has already been imposed on the person for such a breach within one year. What matters then is whether a penalty was genuinely imposed earlier, whether it concerned a breach of the same kind, and whether it falls inside that one-year window.
How these cases run in practice
A case of this kind normally begins with an on-site inspection, a record of the quantity of fuel and the storage conditions, and an administrative offence report. The first things to establish from that report are which part of the article the person is charged under and the factual circumstances the authority relies on — that is what everything afterwards is built on.
Article 155¹ itself says nothing about the deadline for appealing, the body an appeal goes to, or what the decision must contain — those questions are governed by other provisions of the Code. So check the deadline and the addressee in the document handed to you rather than relying on a general assumption. Missing an appeal deadline frequently does more damage than the disputed facts ever would.
What you can do, and where a lawyer changes the outcome
Because each part carries a fixed sum, the main line of defence runs through classification — whether the correct part was applied. The points most often in dispute are these:
- whether the facility really was non-stationary, and whether trading was taking place from it;
- which specific rule was breached — whether the report names it, or only uses a general formulation;
- how many litres were recorded and how they were measured, since proximity to the 200 and 2,000 litre thresholds changes the fine directly;
- whether a penalty was in fact imposed within the preceding year, and whether it concerned a breach of the same kind;
- whether the rules on drawing up the report and serving it on the person were observed.
A lawyer cannot promise that the fine will be cancelled, and should not. What is actually done is concrete: reviewing the file, comparing the report against the measurement documents, arguing for the correct part of the article, and filing that position in time and with the competent body.
What to bring
A first consultation moves faster if you already have the core documents in hand:
- the administrative offence report and every sheet attached to it;
- the document or entry recording the quantity of fuel;
- documentation covering transport and storage — waybills, warehouse records, contracts;
- information about any administrative penalty imposed on you in the past year, if there is one.