§ 207. — Schedule of rates.
[Laws in effect as of January 7, 2003]
[Document not affected by Public Laws enacted between
January 7, 2003 and December 19, 2003]
[CITE: 7USC207]
TITLE 7--AGRICULTURE
CHAPTER 9--PACKERS AND STOCKYARDS
SUBCHAPTER III--STOCKYARDS AND STOCKYARD DEALERS
Sec. 207. Schedule of rates
(a) Filing; public inspection
Within sixty days after the Secretary has given public notice that a
stockyard is within the definition of section 202 of this title, by
posting copies of such notice in the stockyard, the stockyard owner and
every market agency at such stockyard shall file with the Secretary, and
print and keep open to public inspection at the stockyard, schedules
showing all rates and charges for the stockyard services furnished by
such person at such stockyard. If a market agency commences business at
the stockyard after the expiration of such sixty days such schedules
must be filed before any stockyard services are furnished.
(b) Detail required; form
Such schedules shall plainly state all such rates and charges in
such detail as the Secretary may require, and shall also state any rules
or regulations which in any manner change, affect, or determine any part
or the aggregate of such rates or charges, or the value of the stockyard
services furnished. The Secretary may determine and prescribe the form
and manner in which such schedules shall be prepared, arranged, and
posted, and may from time to time make such changes in respect thereto
as may be found expedient.
(c) Changes
No changes shall be made in the rates or charges so filed and
published, except after ten days' notice to the Secretary and to the
public filed and published as aforesaid, which shall plainly state the
changes proposed to be made and the time such changes will go into
effect; but the Secretary may, for good cause shown, allow changes on
less than ten days' notice, or modify the requirements of this section
in respect to publishing, posting, and filing of schedules, either in
particular instances or by a general order applicable to special or
peculiar circumstances or conditions.
(d) Rejection by Secretary
The Secretary may reject and refuse to file any schedule tendered
for filing which does not provide and give lawful notice of its
effective date, and any schedule so rejected by the Secretary shall be
void and its use shall be unlawful.
(e) Determination of lawfulness; hearing; suspension
Whenever there is filed with the Secretary any schedule, stating a
new rate or charge, or a new regulation or practice affecting any rate
or charge, the Secretary may either upon complaint or upon his own
initiative without complaint, at once, and if he so orders without
answer or other formal pleading by the person filing such schedule, but
upon reasonable notice, enter upon a hearing concerning the lawfulness
of such rate, charge, regulation, or practice, and pending such hearing
and decision thereon the Secretary, upon filing with such schedule and
delivering to the person filing it a statement in writing of his reasons
for such suspension, may suspend the operation of such schedule and
defer the use of such rate, charge, regulation, or practice, but not for
a longer period than thirty days beyond the time when it would otherwise
go into effect; and after full hearing, whether completed before or
after the rate, charge, regulation, or practice goes into effect, the
Secretary may make such order with reference thereto as would be proper
in a proceeding initiated after it had become effective. If any such
hearing cannot be concluded within the period of suspension the
Secretary may extend the time of suspension for a further period not
exceeding thirty days, and if the proceeding has not been concluded and
an order made at the expiration of such thirty days, the proposed change
of rate, charge, regulation, or practice shall go into effect at the end
of such period.
(f) Suspension of operations; compliance
After the expiration of the sixty days referred to in subsection (a)
of this section, no person shall carry on the business of a stockyard
owner or market agency unless the rates and charges for the stockyard
services furnished at the stockyard have been filed and published in
accordance with this section and the orders of the Secretary made
thereunder; nor charge, demand, or collect a greater or less or
different compensation for such services than the rates and charges
specified in the schedules filed and in effect at the time; nor refund
or remit in any manner any portion of the rates or charges so specified
(but this shall not prohibit a cooperative association of producers from
bona fide returning to its members, on a patronage basis, its excess
earnings on their livestock, subject to such regulations as the
Secretary may prescribe); nor extend to any person at such stockyard any
stockyard services except such as are specified in such schedules.
(g) Penalty
Whoever fails to comply with the provisions of this section or of
any regulation or order of the Secretary made thereunder shall be liable
to a penalty of not more than $500 for each such offense, and not more
than $25 for each day it continues, which shall accrue to the United
States and may be recovered in a civil action brought by the United
States.
(h) Intentional violations; penalty
Whoever willfully fails to comply with the provisions of this
section or of any regulation or order of the Secretary made thereunder
shall on conviction be fined not more than $1,000, or imprisoned not
more than one year, or both.
(Aug. 15, 1921, ch. 64, title III, Sec. 306, 42 Stat. 164; Pub. L. 94-
410, Sec. 3(c), Sept. 13, 1976, 90 Stat. 1249.)
Amendments
1976--Subsec. (f). Pub. L. 94-410 substituted ``livestock'' for
``live stock'' after ``earnings on their''.
