Retailers; records

Sec. 11c. Retailers; records. Every retailer who is required to procure a license under this Act shall keep within Illinois complete and accurate records of cigarettes purchased, sold, or otherwise disposed of. It shall be the duty of every retail licensee to make sales records, copies of bills of sale, and inventory at the close of each period for which a report is required of all cigarettes on hand available upon reasonable notice for the purpose of investigation and control by the Department. Such records need not be maintained on the licensed premises, but must be maintained in the State of Illinois; however, if access is available electronically, the records may be maintained out of state. However, all original invoices or copies thereof covering purchases of cigarettes must be retained on the licensed premises for a period of 90 days after such purchase, unless the Department has granted a waiver in response to a written request in cases where records are kept at a central business location within the State of Illinois or in cases where records that are available electronically are maintained out of state. The Department may adopt rules that establish requirements, including record forms and formats, for records required to be kept and maintained by the retailer. The Department shall adopt rules regarding the eligibility for a waiver, revocation of a waiver, and requirements and standards for maintenance and accessibility of records located at a central location out-of-State pursuant to a waiver provided under this Section. For purposes of this Section, "records" means all data maintained by the retailer, including data on paper, microfilm, microfiche or any type of machine sensible data compilation. Those books, records, papers, and documents shall be preserved for a period of at least 3 years after the date of the documents, or the date of the entries appearing in the records, unless the Department, in writing, authorizes their destruction or disposal at an earlier date. At all times during the usual business hours of the day, any duly authorized agent or employee of the Department may enter any place of business of the retailer without a search warrant and may inspect the premises to determine whether any of the provisions of this Act are being violated. If such agent or employee is denied free access or is hindered or interfered with in making such examination as herein provided, the license of the retailer shall be subject to suspension or revocation by the Department. (Source: P.A. 98-1055, eff. 1-1-16; 99-192, eff. 1-1-16 .)