§ 350-d. Civil penalty. (a) Any person, firm, corporation or
association or agent or employee thereof who engages in any of the acts
or practices stated in this article to be unlawful shall be liable to a
civil penalty of not more than five thousand dollars for each violation,
which shall accrue to the state of New York and may be recovered in a
civil action brought by the attorney general. In any such action it
shall be a complete defense that the advertisement is subject to and
complies with the rules and regulations of, and the statutes
administered by the Federal Trade Commission or any official department,
division, commission or agency of the state of New York.

(b) Notwithstanding subdivision (a) of this section, any firm,
corporation or association or agent or employee thereof who engages in
any of the acts or practices stated in section three hundred forty-nine
of this article to be unlawful in connection with or during an abnormal
disruption of the market shall be liable to a civil penalty of not more
than fifteen thousand dollars for each violation or three times the
actual restitution needed, whichever is greater, which shall accrue to
the state of New York and may be recovered in a civil action brought by
the attorney general. In any such action it shall be a complete defense
that the advertisement is subject to and complies with the rules and
regulations of, and the statutes administered by the Federal Trade
Commission or any official department, division, commission or agency of
the state of New York. For the purposes of this subdivision, "abnormal
disruption of the market" shall mean any change in the market, whether
actual or imminently threatened, resulting from stress of weather,
convulsion of nature, failure or shortage of electric power or other
source of energy, strike, civil disorder, war, military action, national
or local emergency, or other cause of an abnormal disruption of the
market which results in the declaration of a state of emergency by the
governor.