---
kind: "section"
citation: "7 U.S.C. § 1596"
title: "7"
title_heading: "Agriculture"
number: "1596"
heading: "Penalties"
release: "119-102"
date: "2026-07-12"
url: "https://uscodex.org/usc/7/1596"
units:
  - "Chapter 37 — Seeds"
  - "Subchapter IV — General Provisions"
---

# §1596. Penalties

- (a) Any [person](/usc/7/1561.md?p=a-2) who knowingly, or as a result either of gross negligence or of a failure to make a reasonable effort to inform himself of the pertinent facts, violates any provision of this chapter or the rules and regulations made and promulgated thereunder shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor and, upon conviction thereof, shall pay a fine of not more than $1,000, for the first offense, and upon conviction for each subsequent offense not more than $2,000.
- (b) Any [person](/usc/7/1561.md?p=a-2) who violates any provision of this chapter or the rules and regulations made and promulgated thereunder shall forfeit to the [United States](/usc/7/1561.md?p=a-1) a sum, not less than $25 or more than $500, for each such violation, which forfeiture shall be recoverable in a civil suit brought in the name of the [United States](/usc/7/1561.md?p=a-1).

## Source credit

(Aug. 9, 1939, ch. 615, title IV, § 406, 53 Stat. 1286; July 9, 1956, ch. 520, § 1, 70 Stat. 508.)

## Notes

### Editorial Notes

### Amendments

1956—Act July 9, 1956, designated existing provisions as subsec. (a), inserted “knowingly or as a result either of gross negligence or of a failure to make a reasonable effort to inform himself of the pertinent facts,” and added subsec. (b).

### Statutory Notes and Related Subsidiaries

### Effective Date of 1956 Amendment

Act July 9, 1956, ch. 520, § 4, 70 Stat. 508, provided that: “The amendments made by this Act [amending sections 1574, 1596, and 1602 of this title] shall be applicable only with respect to violations occurring after the enactment of this Act [July 9, 1956].”

### Effective Date

See section 1610 of this title.