2011 Oregon Revised Statutes
ORS Volume 14, Chapters 645 - 669
ORS Chapter 646
646.760 Civil penalties; attorney fees; mitigation.

(1) The Attorney General may prosecute an action for appropriate injunctive relief and civil penalties in the name of the state for any violation of ORS 646.725 or 646.730. The court may assess for the benefit of the state a civil penalty of not more than $250,000 for each violation of ORS 136.617, 646.705 to 646.805 and 646.990. Any act or series of acts by one or more individual persons (officers, agents or partners) on behalf of a corporation or other business entity may be found to constitute a violation or violations by such individual person or persons as well as by the corporation or other business entity, and separate penalties may be imposed against each of such individual defendants and corporate or other business entity defendants for such a violation. The court may award reasonable attorney fees, expert witness fees and costs of investigation to the Attorney General if the Attorney General prevails in an action under this section. The court may award reasonable attorney fees, expert witness fees and costs of investigation to a defendant who prevails in an action under this section if the court determines that the Attorney General had no objectively reasonable basis for asserting the claim or no reasonable basis for appealing an adverse decision of the trial court.

(2) The complaint may also seek and the court may order, in an appropriate case, the forfeiture of any corporate franchise, professional or business license, right to do business or to use an assumed business name, where the court finds the use by any defendant of such franchise, license or right has been material to a violation of ORS 646.725 or 646.730.

(3) The court shall take into consideration in mitigation of any penalty assessed under this section, any fine or penalty imposed against the defendant by a United States court in a final judgment under sections 1 to 45 of Title 15 of the United States Code, which the court finds to be based on the same or substantially the same acts of defendant. [1975 c.255 8; 1981 c.897 80; 1995 c.696 36; 1999 c.370 1]