Ohio Code 1729.69 – Unfair marketing practices
(A) No handler shall commit an unfair marketing practice, as defined in division (B) of this section, whenever a marketing cooperative has been authorized by its members to bargain on behalf of its members for sales contracts with the handler and any of the following conditions exist:
Terms Used In Ohio Code 1729.69
- Agricultural products: includes aquacultural, horticultural, viticultural, forestry, dairy, livestock, poultry, bee, and farm products, and the produce or byproducts of any of such products. See Ohio Code 1729.01
- Bargaining: means the mutual obligation of a handler and a marketing cooperative to meet at reasonable times and confer and negotiate in good faith. See Ohio Code 1729.01
- Contract: A legal written agreement that becomes binding when signed.
- Cooperative: means an association or a foreign association. See Ohio Code 1729.01
- Handler: means a person who acquires agricultural products under a sales contract for the purpose of processing or reselling agricultural products. See Ohio Code 1729.01
- Marketing cooperative: means any agricultural cooperative meeting the requirements of the "Co-operative Marketing Associations Act" 42 Stat. See Ohio Code 1729.01
- members: as used in this chapter with respect to the right of a member to vote, voting procedure, the required proportion of member votes, actions that are required or permitted to be taken by members, and the number of members required for a quorum, means the delegates or other members entitled to vote. See Ohio Code 1729.17
- Producer: means a person engaged in the production of agricultural products for the market, including a lessor of real or personal property used for production of agricultural products for the market that receives as rent part of the agricultural product. See Ohio Code 1729.01
- Sales contract: means a marketing agreement or other similar arrangement between a handler and a producer, negotiated by the producer or by an agricultural cooperative acting as agent for a producer, under which the producer agrees to grow or produce agricultural products for sale to the handler. See Ohio Code 1729.01
(1) Members of the marketing cooperative are obligated to produce and deliver agricultural products or produce under sales contracts negotiated by the marketing cooperative.
(2) Members of the marketing cooperative represent, on the yearly average calculated over the immediate two preceding calendar years, at least fifty-one per cent of the producers who delivered agricultural products or produce to the specified facility of the handler under sales contracts.
(3) Members of the marketing cooperative delivered, under sales contracts, on the yearly average calculated over the immediate two preceding calendar years, at least fifty per cent of the total amount of agricultural products delivered to the specified facility of the handler under sales contracts.
(4) The marketing cooperative, if requested by the handler, presents to the handler copies of the agreements with its members authorizing the marketing cooperative to bargain on behalf of its members for sales contracts for the agricultural products that are the subject of the sales contract under negotiation.
(B) For purposes of this section, it is an unfair marketing practice if either of the following applies:
(1) If the handler or the marketing cooperative that is bargaining fails to bargain in good faith in negotiating sales contracts for agricultural products to be delivered to a facility of the handler;
(2) If a handler enters into a sales contract directly with a producer, pertaining to agricultural products to be delivered to the same facility, with the intent to cause the marketing cooperative to fail to meet the conditions set forth in divisions (A)(2) and (3) of this section.