Title 18Crimes and Criminal ProcedureRelease 119-73

§1733 Mailing periodical publications without prepayment of postage

Title 18 › Part PART I— - CRIMES › Chapter CHAPTER 83— - POSTAL SERVICE › § 1733

Last updated Apr 6, 2026|Official source

Summary

Knowingly mailing a periodical without postage, or allowing that, results in fine or up to one year jail unless law permits.

Full Legal Text

Title 18, §1733

Crimes and Criminal Procedure — Source: USLM XML via OLRC

Whoever, except as permitted by law, knowingly mails any periodical publication without the prepayment of postage, or, being an officer or employee of the Postal Service, knowingly permits any periodical publication to be mailed without prepayment of postage, shall be fined under this title, or imprisoned not more than one year, or both.

Legislative History

Notes & Related Subsidiaries

Editorial Notes

Amendments

1994—Pub. L. 103–322 substituted “fined under this title” for “fined not more than $1,000”. 1970—Pub. L. 91–375 substituted “Mailing periodical publications without prepayment of postage” for “Affidavits relating to second class mail” as section catchline, struck out subsec. (a) penalty provision for fine of not more than $1,000 for each refusal to make affidavits relating to second class mail when tendering for mailing such mail without any affidavits, and reenacted subsec. (b) as the section without any subsection designation, inserting “, except as permitted by law,” and substituting “periodical publication” for “second class mail” in two places, “prepayment of postage” for “payment of postage” where first appearing, and “officer or employee of the Postal Service” for “postmaster or postal official”.

Statutory Notes and Related Subsidiaries

Effective Date

of 1970 AmendmentAmendment by Pub. L. 91–375 effective within 1 year after Aug. 12, 1970, on date established therefor by Board of Governors of United States Postal Service and published by it in Federal Register, see section 15(a) of Pub. L. 91–375, set out as an

Effective Date

note preceding section 101 of Title 39, Postal Service.

Effective Date

Section effective Sept. 1, 1960, see section 11 of Pub. L. 86–682, Sept. 2, 1960, 74 Stat. 708.

Reference

Citations & Metadata

Citation

18 U.S.C. § 1733

Title 18Crimes and Criminal Procedure

Last Updated

Apr 6, 2026

Release point: 119-73