> But North Carolina law caps penalties at $5,000 per inspection, offering retailers little incentive to fix the problem

This is a huge problem with all manner of laws in the US. We are not willing to insist that fees be limited only by their ability to prevent the prohibited behavior. Fines should continually escalate, if necessary until the offender is bankrupted, at which point their assets are taken. If Dollar Tree keeps doing this, the fines should eventually reach into the hundreds of millions of dollars, even the billions. Such penalties should also apply to company executives and board members who are responsible for the company's overall conduct.

It looks like North Carolina’s previous Weights & Measures law was entirely criminal. So in 1991 they added civil powers, but curtailed the fines.

The solution here appears to be less in raising the civil fine and more in criminally investigating, to start with, the store manager [1].

[1] https://www.ncleg.gov/enactedlegislation/statutes/html/bycha... § 81A-30.1

The article metions Family Dollar and Dollar General. Dollar Tree is a different company.

I'm not convinced that anything short of prison for executives and board members would be enough.