Opinion ID: 77005
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Statutory Provision

Text: 16 At issue in this case is Section 202 of the PSA which provides that: 17 It shall be unlawful for any packer or swine contractor with respect to livestock, meats, meat food products, or livestock products in unmanufactured form, or for any live poultry dealer with respect to live poultry, to: 18 (a) Engage in or use any unfair, unjustly discriminatory, or deceptive practice or device; or 19 (b) Make or give any undue or unreasonable preference or advantage to any particular person or locality in any respect, or subject any particular person or locality to any undue or unreasonable prejudice or disadvantage in any respect; or 20 (c) Sell or otherwise transfer to or for any other packer, swine contractor, or any live poultry dealer, or buy or otherwise receive from or for any other packer, swine contractor, or any live poultry dealer, any article for the purpose or with the effect of apportioning the supply between any such persons, if such apportionment has the tendency or effect of restraining commerce or of creating a monopoly; or 21 (d) Sell or otherwise transfer to or for any other person, or buy or otherwise receive from or for any other person, any article for the purpose or with the effect of manipulating or controlling prices, or of creating a monopoly in the acquisition of, buying, selling, or dealing in, any article, or of restraining commerce; or 22 (e) Engage in any course of business or do any act for the purpose or with the effect of manipulating or controlling prices, or of creating a monopoly in the acquisition of, buying, selling, or dealing in, any article, or of restraining commerce; or 23 (f) Conspire, combine, agree, or arrange with any other person (1) to apportion territory for carrying on business, or (2) to apportion purchases or sales of any article, or (3) to manipulate or control prices; or 24 (g) Conspire, combine, agree, or arrange with any other person to do, or aid or abet the doing of, any act made unlawful by subdivisions (a), (b), (c), (d), or (e) of this section. 25 7 U.S.C. § 192 (2004). 26 The PSA was enacted in 1921 to comprehensively regulate packers, stockyards, marketing agents and dealers. Hays Livestock Comm'n Co. v. Maly Livestock Comm'n Co., 498 F.2d 925, 927 (10th Cir.1974). At the time Congress enacted the PSA, [t]he chief evil feared [was] the monopoly of the packers, enabling them unduly and arbitrarily to lower prices to the shipper, who sells, and unduly and arbitrarily to increase the price to the consumer, who buys. Stafford v. Wallace, 258 U.S. 495, 514-15, 42 S.Ct. 397, 401, 66 L.Ed. 735 (1922). Section 202 of the original Act made it unlawful for any `packer' to engage in any anticompetitive, monopolistic, discriminatory, or deceptive practices. United States v. Perdue Farms, Inc., 680 F.2d 277, 281 (2nd Cir.1982). In 1935, Congress amended the PSA to include live poultry dealers and handlers, see id. at 280-82, and later included swine contractors. The PSA authorizes the Secretary of Agriculture to enjoin violations of Section 202(a) by packers and swine contractors. See 7 U.S.C. § 193. The PSA does not, however, authorize the Secretary to enjoin violations by live poultry dealers. 4 See id. Persons injured as a result of a violation by a live poultry dealer may bring an action in federal district court to recover the full amount of damages sustained in consequence of such violation. 7 U.S.C. § 209(a).