USDA’s Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS) on Wednesday issued a final rule, effective immediately, expanding the rules of practice to an already existing statutory penalty authority, to include actions initiated under subtitles B (Livestock Mandatory Reporting) and D (Country of Origin Labeling) of the 1946 Agricultural Marketing Act (AMA).
The final rule requires AMS to follow the uniform procedures when taking enforcement action, including issuing fines, against packers as defined by the Agricultural Marketing Act (AMA) or other persons that violate Livestock Mandatory Reporting regulations or against retailers and suppliers (as defined by the Perishable Agricultural Commodities Act) who have not made a good-faith effort to comply with the agency’s Country or Origin Labeling (COOL) regulations and have continued to willfully violate the regulations.
Under the AMA, civil penalties for actions brought under subtitle B (Livestock Mandatory Reporting) may be no more than $10,000 for each violation and actions brought under subpart D (Country of Origin Labeling) may be no more than $1,000 for each violation.
