Most people have never heard of a BIC summons at OATH, and there is a good reason. They only started being heard there on 26 April 2023. Before that the Commission heard them itself. This is a three year old area.
The price list is 17 RCNY Chapter 1, Appendix A. Two tables, 236 rows, added in March 2023 and never changed since.
Winning at OATH does not end a BIC case
This is the one thing that makes BIC different, and it is in OATH’s own rules.
For BIC trade waste summonses, the hearing officer writes a recommended decision. The Commission can accept it, reject it, or change it. Every other agency on this site gets a decision that stands automatically. OATH added the BIC exception one day after BIC’s price list took effect.
Plan for that. A good result at the hearing is a recommendation, not the end.
What the charges cost
| Charge | Rule | First | Repeat | Reduced | If you don’t show |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hauling trade waste without a licence | § 16-505(a) | $2,500 | $5,000 | $1,500 | $5,000 |
| Hauling without an exemption | § 16-505(a) | $2,500 | $5,000 | $1,500 | $5,000 |
| Hauling without registering (Class 1) | § 16-505(b) | $500 | $1,000 | $250 | $1,000 |
| Working as a broker without registering | § 16-505(b) | $500 | $1,000 | $250 | $1,000 |
| Operating as a labor union without registering | § 16-505(c) | $10,000 | $10,000 | $0 | $10,000 |
| Not transferring a licence (licensee) | § 16-505(e) | $7,500 | $10,000 | $10,000 | |
| Not transferring a licence (Class 1) | § 16-505(e) | $750 | $1,000 | $1,000 |
On the licensing charges, you get the reduced price just by filing the application before your hearing date. That is a simple step, and on the unlicensed hauling row it is worth about a thousand dollars.
Two things surprise people. BIC reaches brokers who never touch waste. And it reaches labor unions, at $10,000.
The fine is the least of it
Three rules matter more than any number above.
Hauling without a licence is charged per day. It runs $5,000 a day, or $10,000 a day criminally, and up to six months in jail. The $2,500 on the OATH list is the floor, not your exposure.
Any violation can cost you the licence. The rule makes any violation grounds to refuse, suspend or revoke it.
They can seal your premises and take your trucks. That power is triggered either by operating without a licence or by three violations in three years. A truck you do not reclaim is sold at public auction after 90 days.
That three-in-three-years trigger is why a small summons is not a small matter here. Each one is a step toward the sealing power.
You are liable for your employees
The rule is short and leaves no room: a licensed or registered business “shall be liable for violations … committed by any of its employees or agents.”
You do not have to have known. And it is no defence that a driver went off script. If you run the company, you own what happens.
Public wholesale markets are a separate chapter
The trade waste list above is trade waste only. If your summons is about the Fulton Fish Market or another public wholesale market, you are in a different chapter with its own prices.
The old markets schedule at 48 RCNY § 3-108 was repealed effective 16 November 2018, and this is the part that gets misread: it was not abolished, it was relocated the same day by the same rulemaking into 17 RCNY § 11-22(e), in BIC’s own Chapter 2 on Markets. That was part of a citywide move of penalty schedules out of Title 48 and into each agency’s own rules. BIC’s trade waste side made the same trip in 2023.
The charging law is Administrative Code Title 22, Chapter 1-A for the Fulton Fish Market and seafood, and Chapter 1-B for other public markets, at §§ 22-201 and 22-251 onward.
Money violations go to the OATH Hearings Division. Losing a licence works differently: BIC chooses between the Commission itself, a hearing officer, or OATH. Where it goes to OATH, that is again a recommendation, and BIC issues the final determination.