---
kind: "section"
citation: "7 U.S.C. § 208"
title: "7"
title_heading: "Agriculture"
number: "208"
heading: "Unreasonable or discriminatory practices generally; rights of stockyard owner of management and regulation"
release: "119-102"
date: "2026-07-12"
url: "https://uscodex.org/usc/7/208"
units:
  - "Chapter 9 — Packers and Stockyards"
  - "Subchapter III — Stockyards and Stockyard Dealers"
---

# §208. Unreasonable or discriminatory practices generally; rights of stockyard owner of management and regulation

- (a) It shall be the duty of every [stockyard owner](/usc/7/201.md?p=a) and [market agency](/usc/7/201.md?p=c) to establish, observe, and enforce just, reasonable, and nondiscriminatory regulations and practices in respect to the furnishing of [stockyard services](/usc/7/201.md?p=b), and every unjust, unreasonable, or discriminatory regulation or practice is prohibited and declared to be unlawful.
- (b) It shall be the responsibility and right of every [stockyard owner](/usc/7/201.md?p=a) to manage and regulate his [stockyard](/usc/7/202.md?p=a) in a just, reasonable, and nondiscriminatory manner, to prescribe rules and regulations and to require those [persons](/usc/7/182.md?p=1) engaging in or attempting to engage in the purchase, sale, or solicitation of [livestock](/usc/7/182.md?p=4) at such [stockyard](/usc/7/202.md?p=a) to conduct their operations in a manner which will foster, preserve, or insure an efficient, competitive public [market](/usc/7/198.md?p=1). Such rules and regulations shall not prevent a registered [market agency](/usc/7/201.md?p=c) or [dealer](/usc/7/201.md?p=d) from rendering service on other [markets](/usc/7/198.md?p=1) or in occasional and incidental off-[market](/usc/7/198.md?p=1) transactions.

## Source credit

(Aug. 15, 1921, ch. 64, title III, § 307, 42 Stat. 165; Pub. L. 90–446, § 1(d), July 31, 1968, 82 Stat. 475.)

## Notes

### Editorial Notes

### Amendments

1968—Pub. L. 90–446 designated existing provisions as subsec. (a) and added subsec. (b).