§ 4307 — Permissive Terms In Orders

Orders issued pursuant to this chapter may contain one or more of the following terms and conditions: (1) Providing for the establishment, issuance, effectuation, and administration of appropriate plans or projects for advertising, sales promotion, urban beautification, and consumer education with respect to the use of flowers and plants, and for the disbursement of necessary funds for such purposes: Provided, That any such plan or project shall be directed toward increasing the general demand for flowers and plants and shall make no reference to a private brand or trade name: Provided further, That no such advertising, consumer education, urban beautification, or sales promotion program shall make use of unfair or deceptive acts or practices with respect to the quality, value, or use of any competing product. (2) Providing for establishing and carrying on research, marketing, and development projects, and studies with respect to the sale, distribution, marketing, or utilization of flowers and plants, to the end that the marketing and utilization of flowers and plants may be encouraged, expanded, improved, or made more acceptable, for the dissemination of the data collected by such activities and for the disbursement of necessary funds for such purposes. (3) Providing that producers, wholesalers, retailers, and importers of flowers and plants maintain and make available for inspection such books and records as are specified in the order and that such persons file reports at the time, in the manner, and having the content prescribed by the order, to the end that information and data shall be made available to the Floraboard and to the Secretary which is appropriate or necessary to the effectuation, administration, or enforcement of this chapter, or any order or regulation issued pursuant to this chapter: Provided, That all information so obtained shall be kept confidential by employees of the Department of Agriculture and the Floraboard, and only such information as the Secretary deems relevant shall be disclosed by them, and then only in a suit or administrative hearing brought at the direction, or upon the request, of the Secretary, or in a suit or administrative hearing to which the Secretary or any officer of the United States is a party, and involving the order with reference to which the information to be disclosed was furnished or acquired. Nothing in this section shall be deemed to prohibit (A) the issuance of general statements based upon the reports of the number of persons subject to an order, or statistical data collected therefrom, which statements do not identify the information furnished by any person, (B) the publication by the Floraboard of general statements relating to refunds made by the Floraboard during any specific period, including regional information on refunds, (C) the publication by the Floraboard of information on the amount of assessments collected from each commodity group and the rate of refund in each commodity group, or (D) the publication by direction of the Secretary of the name of any person violating any order, together with a statement of the particular provisions of the order violated by such persons. No information obtained pursuant to the authority of this chapter may be made available to any agency or officer of the Federal Government for any purpose other than the implementation of this chapter and any investigatory or enforcement actions necessary for the implementation of this chapter. Any person violating the provisions of this paragraph shall, upon conviction, be subject to a fine of not more than $1,000 or to imprisonment for not more than one year, or to both, and, if an officer or employee of the Floraboard or the Department of Agriculture, shall be removed from office. (4) Terms and conditions incidental to and not inconsistent with the terms and conditions specified in this chapter and necessary to effectuate the other provisions of such order.