7 U.S.C. § 213
Section 213 · Prevention of unfair, discriminatory, or deceptive practices
Amended 4 times on record
Applied in 56 court decisions — leading case Butz v. Glover Livestock Commission Co. (1973)
Most recently applied in Org. for Competitive Markets v. U.S. Department of Agriculture (December 2018)
How often courts cite this section
Court decisions citing this, by year.Markers show enactment, consequential amendments, and circuit splits over this section — watch for a citation surge after a change or a disagreement. The dip in the last several years is a data-coverage gap, not a real trend — our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so recent citations are undercounted.
(a) It shall be unlawful for any stockyard owner, market agency, or dealer to engage in or use any unfair, unjustly discriminatory, or deceptive practice or device in connection with determining whether persons should be authorized to operate at the stockyards, or with the receiving, marketing, buying, or selling on a commission basis or otherwise, feeding, watering, holding, delivery, shipment, weighing, or handling of livestock.
(b) Whenever complaint is made to the Secretary by any person, or whenever the Secretary has reason to believe, that any stockyard owner, market agency, or dealer is violating the provisions of subsection (a) of this section, the Secretary after notice and full hearing may make an order that he shall cease and desist from continuing such violation to the extent that the Secretary finds that it does or will exist. The Secretary may also assess a civil penalty of not more than $10,000 for each such violation. In determining the amount of the civil penalty to be assessed under this section, the Secretary shall consider the gravity of the offense, the size of the business involved, and the effect of the penalty on the person's ability to continue in business. If, after the lapse of the period allowed for appeal or after the affirmance of such penalty, the person against whom the civil penalty is assessed fails to pay such penalty, the Secretary may refer the matter to the Attorney General who may recover such penalty by an action in the appropriate district court of the United States.
Editorial notes U.S. Code · Office of the Law Revision Counsel
Amendments
1976—Subsec. (a). Pub. L. 94–410, §3(a), (c), struck out “in commerce” after “or handling” and substituted “livestock” for “live stock”.
Subsec. (b). Pub. L. 94–410, §3(b), inserted provisions dealing with authority of Secretary to assess a civil penalty for violations and, upon failure to pay, procedure for recovery of such penalty.
1968—Subsec. (a). Pub. L. 90–446 inserted “determining whether persons should be authorized to operate at stockyards, or with” after “in connection with”.
1958—Subsec. (a). Pub. L. 85–909 struck out “at a stockyard” after “in commerce”.