For purposes of this article, the following definitions shall apply:
(a) “Manufacturer” means a business concern that owns or owned a name brand of mercury-added thermostats sold in this state before January 1, 2006.
(b) “Mercury-added thermostat” has the same meaning as defined in paragraph (2) of subdivision (b) of Section 25214.8.1.
(c) “Out-of-service mercury-added thermostat” means a mercury-added thermostat that is removed from a building or facility in this state and is intended to be discarded.
(d) “Program” means a system for the collection, transportation, recycling, and disposal of out-of-service mercury-added thermostats that is financed, as well as managed or provided, by a manufacturer or collectively with other manufacturers.
(e) “Retailer” means a person who sells thermostats of any kind directly to a consumer through a selling or distribution mechanism, including, but not limited to, a sale using catalogs or the Internet. A retailer may be a wholesaler if the person meets the definition of a wholesaler set forth in subdivision (g).
(f) “Thermostat” means a product or device that uses a switch to sense and control room temperature through communication with heating, ventilating, or air-conditioning equipment. “Thermostat” includes a thermostat used to sense and control room temperature in residential, commercial, industrial, and other buildings, but does not include a thermostat used to sense and control temperature as part of a manufacturing process.
(g) “Wholesaler” means a person engaged in the distribution and wholesale selling of heating, ventilation, and air-conditioning components to contractors who install heating, ventilation, and air-conditioning components, and whose total wholesale sales account for 80 percent or more of total sales. A manufacturer, as defined by this section, is not a wholesaler.
(Added by Stats. 2008, Ch. 572, Sec. 2. Effective January 1, 2009.)