Selling a cold weapon to a minor and failure to display the prohibition notice (Art. 181²)

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Who pays the fine — the shop or the sales assistant?

All four parts of Article 181² use the same formula: the offence "shall entail the fining of the trade object". The law therefore names the outlet itself as the addressee of the sanction. Which amount applies depends on the part under which the case is classified.

What is the penalty for selling a knife to a minor?

Part 3 sets a fine of 300 GEL on the trade object for selling a cold weapon to a minor. If the same offence is committed again within 1 year, part 4 raises it to 500 GEL. The article provides no other sanction, such as suspension of trading.

We have the banner, but not near the till. Is that compliant?

The law requires the banner to be displayed in a place visible to the buyer. It does not specify size, wording or an exact location, so the question is assessed on the facts of the inspection. A missing banner carries 100 GEL, and 200 GEL if the same breach is repeated within 1 year.

We were fined last year over the banner. Does the next sale mean 500 GEL?

Not automatically. Part 2 covers only a repeat of the banner breach, and part 4 only a repeat of the sale to a minor. So the part and the date of the earlier penalty both need checking before repetition is accepted.

How long do we have to appeal?

Article 181² sets no appeal deadline; that is governed by other provisions of the Code. The exact period and the competent body should be stated in the document you were given after the inspection, so that document — not the text of the article — is where to look.

5 min·22 Aug 2026

What Article 181² actually regulates

Article 181² of the Administrative Offences Code of Georgia protects two separate requirements that fall on retail. The first is informational: a trade object must display, in a place visible to the buyer, an information banner prohibiting the sale of cold weapons to minors. The second concerns the transaction itself: a cold weapon must not be sold to a minor. The article deals with these two forms of conduct in separate parts, and attaches its own fine to each.

The law names the addressee of the sanction directly — it is the trade object that is fined. That wording is repeated unchanged in all four parts, which is why proceedings are normally conducted against the outlet rather than against an individual shop assistant. The article also treats the missing banner as an offence in its own right: it is complete even where no sale to a minor ever took place. It is enough that at the moment of inspection the banner was not displayed in a place visible to the buyer.

Selling a cold weapon to a minor and failure to display the prohibition notice (Art. 181²)