Or. Admin. R. 603-056-0540 - Civil Penalties; Magnitude of Violation and Gravity of Circumstance
(1) When
calculating a civil penalty for a violation, the department will determine the
base penalty (B) by determining the magnitude of the violation as specified in
section (2) of this rule and the gravity of circumstance pertinent to the
violation as specified in section (3) of this rule.
(2) Magnitude of Violation: Violations are
categorized as to their magnitude of violation as follows:
(a) Category III (Minor) violations are as
follows:
(A) Selling, offering for sale, or
exposing for sale in the state of Oregon any agricultural or bulk flower seed
that is not labeled or is mislabeled as to the total percentage, by weight, of
inert matter.
(B) Selling, offering
for sale, or exposing for sale in the state of Oregon any agricultural or bulk
flower seed that is not labeled or is mislabeled with respect to the month and
year beyond which an inoculant, if shown in the labeling, is no longer claimed
to be effective.
(b)
Category II (Moderate) violations are as follows:
(A) Selling, offering for sale, or exposing
for sale in the state of Oregon any agricultural, flower, or vegetable seed
that is not labeled or is mislabeled as to origin, other crop seed, weed seed,
percentage of hard seed, month and year of testing, or name and address of
labeler or seller.
(B) Selling,
offering for sale or exposing for sale in the state of Oregon any agricultural,
flower, or vegetable seed shipped, delivered, transported or sold to a dealer
for resale that has not been tested to determine the percentage of germination
within the preceding 18 months.
(C)
Selling, offering for sale or exposing for sale in the state of Oregon any
hermetically sealed seed to be sold at retail that has not been tested within
the preceding 36 months to determine the percentage of germination.
(D) Failing to keep all records required by
Oregon law (ORS chapter 633, any rule adopted pursuant thereto or any of the
terms or conditions of an order issued pursuant thereto).
(E) Selling, offering for sale or exposing
for sale in the state of Oregon any agricultural, flower or vegetable seed
without a valid Oregon seed dealer's license.
(c) Category I (Major) violations are as
follows:
(A) Selling, offering for sale or
exposing for sale in the state of Oregon any agricultural, flower, or vegetable
seed that bears a label that is false or misleading in any particular way that
is not otherwise specified in this rule.
(B) Selling, offering for sale or exposing
for sale in the state of Oregon any agricultural, flower, or vegetable seed
that is not labeled or is mislabeled as to kind, variety, lot number,
percentage of germination, or net quantity of contents.
(C) Selling, offering for sale or exposing
for sale in the state of Oregon any agricultural, flower, or vegetable seed
that is mislabeled as to variety name for seed varieties protected by the Plant
Variety Protection Act (
7
USC §§
2321-
2582;
7
CFR §§ 97.1 - 97.900).
(D) Selling, offering for sale or exposing
for sale in the state of Oregon any agricultural, flower or vegetable seed that
is not labeled or is mislabeled as to chemical treatment as described in OAR
603-056-0431.
(E) Selling, offering
for sale or exposing for sale in the state of Oregon any agricultural, flower,
or vegetable seed containing prohibited noxious weed seeds as established under
OAR 603-056-0205 or the Federal Seed Act.
(F) Selling, offering for sale or exposing
for sale any agricultural or vegetable seed containing restricted noxious weed
seeds in excess of the permissible numbers established in OAR
603-056-0205.
(G) Selling, offering
for sale or exposing for sale in the state of Oregon any tuber, horticultural
plant or agricultural, cereal grain, flower or vegetable seed that is
represented as certified, but was not produced under an official certification
program as described in ORS
633.620
or
633.511(2).
(H) Selling, offering for sale or exposing
for sale in the state of Oregon any agricultural, flower, or vegetable seed
using labels, tags or seals for which the seed does not meet the requirements,
including, but not limited to:
(i) Certified
seed tags as described in ORS
633.511(2);
(ii) Endophyte tags as described
in OAR 603-056-0160; and
(iii)
Oregon Sod Quality seed tags as described in OAR 603-056-130.
(I) Falsifying or altering any
records pertaining to any dealing with agricultural, flower or vegetable seed,
including seed labels, seed tests, records, or other documents pertaining to
seed dealings.
(J) As a seed
conditioner, knowingly mislabeling agricultural, flower or vegetable seed as to
kind or variety in the course of cleaning, blending, bagging, or storing seed
or as part of other activities commonly performed by seed
conditioners.
(K) Failing to
provide records as requested by the department.
(3) Gravity of Circumstance: The department
shall rank the violation as to its gravity of circumstance. Following are the
factors that may be considered in assigning a gravity ranking to a specific
violation. A violation lacking factors that would determine it to be of either
high or medium level shall result in the gravity being ranked low level.
(a) High: a violation may be considered to
have a high gravity of circumstance when any of the following are determined:
(A) The violation was flagrant.
(B) The violation resulted in damage to human
health, animal health, or the environment.
(C) For violations determined under OAR
603-056-0540 (2)(c)(D), if the treatment is also classed as a pesticide as
described in OAR 603-057-0525 (3)(a)(C).
(D) Persons failed to comply with an
officially ordered quarantine of agricultural, flower, or vegetable
seed.
(E) Persons willfully
tampered with, falsified or misrepresented in any manner samples of any
agricultural, flower or vegetable seed.
(F) Persons interfered with the inspection or
sampling of agricultural, flower or vegetable seed by the Director or their
agents during the enforcement of ORS
633.511
to
633.750.
(G) Persons interfered with an investigation
by the Director or their agents during the enforcement of ORS
633.511
to
633.750.
(b) Medium: a violation may be
considered to have a medium gravity of circumstance when any of the following
are determined:
(A) The violation was
flagrant.
(B) The violation could
have caused damage to human health, animal health, or the
environment.
(C) For violations
determined under OAR 603-056-0540 (2)(c)(D), if the treatment is not classed as
a pesticide as described in OAR 603-057-0525 (3)(a)(C).
(D) Persons knowingly tampered with,
falsified, or misrepresented in any manner samples of any agricultural, flower,
or vegetable seed.
(E) Persons
failed to cooperate with the inspection or sampling of agricultural, flower, or
vegetable seed by the department during the enforcement of ORS
633.511
to
633.750.
(F) Persons failed to cooperate with an
investigation by the department during the enforcement of ORS
633.511
to
633.750.
(c) Multiple violations of the
same level may result in all violations of that type to be considered at the
next highest level.
Notes
Statutory/Other Authority: ORS 561, 633 & 183.335 (5)
Statutes/Other Implemented: ORS 183.745 & 633.680
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