1126, 1200, 44 Stat. 9, 122, 125; Feb. 4, 1935, ch. 5 § 7, 49 Stat. 22.) Title 7-Agriculture Chapter 1.-COMMODITY EXCHANGES § 1. Short title of chapter.-This chapter may be cited as the "Commodity Exchange Act." (Sept. 21, 1922, ch. 369, § 1, 42 Stat. 998; June 15, 1936, ch. 545, § 1, 49 Stat. 1491.) EFFECTIVE DATE Section 13 of act of June 15, 1936, cited to text, provided that amendment to this section by that act should become effective 90 days after June 15, 1936. § 2. Definitions. For the purposes of this chapter "contract of sale" shall be held to include sales, agreements of sale, and agreements to sell. The word "person" shall be construed to import the plural or singular, and shall include individuals, associations, partnerships, corporations, and trusts. The word "commodity" shall mean wheat, cotton, rice, corn, oats, barley, rye, flaxseed, grain sorghums, mill feeds, butter, eggs, Solanum tuberosum (Irish potatoes), wool tops, fats, and oils (including lard, tallow, cottonseed oil, peanut oil, soybean oil and all other fats and oils), cottonseed meal, cottonseed, peanuts, soybeans and soybean meal. The term "future delivery", as used herein, shall not include any sale of any cash commodity for deferred shipment or delivery. The words "board of trade" shall be held to include and mean any exchange or association, whether incorporated or unincorporated, of persons who shall be engaged in the business of buying or selling commodity or receiving the same for sale on consignment. The words "interstate commerce" shall be construed to mean commerce between any State, Territory, or pospession, or the District of Columbia, and any place outside thereof; or between points within the same State, Territory, or possession, or the District of Columbia, but through any place outside thereof, or within any Territory or possession, or the District of Columbia. The words "cooperative association of producers" shall mean any cooperative association, corporate or otherwise, not less than 75 per centum in good faith owned or controlled, directly or indirectly, by producers of agricultural products and otherwise complying with sections 291 and 292 of this title, as now or hereafter amended, including any organization acting for a group of such associations and owned or controlled by such associations, provided that business done for or with the United States of America, or any agency thereof, shall not be considered either member or nonmember business in determining the compliance of any such association with said section. The words "member of a contract market" shall mean and include individuals, associations, partnerships, corporations, and trusts owning or holding membership in, or admitted to membership representation on, a contract market or given members' trading privileges thereon. The words "futures commission merchant" shall mean and include individuals, associations, partnerships, corporations, and trusts engaged in soliciting or in accepting orders for the purchase or sale of any commodity for future delivery on or subject to the rules of any contract market and that, in or in connection with such solicitation or acceptance of orders, accepts any money, securities, or property (or extends credit in lieu thereof) to margin, guarantee, or secure any trades or contracts that result or may result therefrom. The words "floor broker" shall mean any person who, in or surrounding any "pit," "ring," "post," or other place provided by a contract market for the meeting of persons similarly engaged, shall engage in executing for others any order for the purchase or sale of any commodity for future delivery on or subject to the rules of any contract market, and who for such services receives or accepts any commission or other compensation. The words "the commission" shall mean the Commodity Exchange Commission, consisting of the Secretary of Agriculture, the Secretary of Commerce, and the Attorney General. (Sept. 21, 1922, ch. 369, § 2, (a), 42 Stat. 998; June 15, 1936, ch. 545; §§ 2, 3, 49 Stat. 1491; April 7, 1938, ch. 108, 52 Stat. 205; Oct. 9, 1940, ch. 786, § 1, 54 Stat. 1059.) EFFECTIVE DATE See note under section 1 of this title. § 3. When transaction deemed in interstate commerce; "State" defined. For the purposes of this chapter (but not in any wise limiting the definition of interstate commerce in section 2 of this title) a transaction in respect to any article shall be considered to be in interstate commerce if such article is part of that current of commerce usual in the commodity trade whereby commodity and commodity products and by-products thereof are sent from one State, with the expectation that they will end their transit, after purchase, in another, including in addition to cases within the above general description, all cases where purchase or sale is either for shipment to another State, or for manufacture within the State and the shipment outside the State of the products resulting from such manufacture. Articles normally in such current of commerce shall not be considered out of such commerce through resort being had to any means or device intended to remove transactions in respect thereto from the provisions of this chapter. For the purpose of this section the word "State" includes Territory, the District of Columbia, possession of the United States, and foreign nation. (Sept. 21 1922, ch. 369, § 2 (b), 42 Stat. 998; June 15, 1936, ch. 545, § 2, 49 Stat. 1491.) EFFECTIVE DATE See note under section 1 of this title. § 4. Liability of principal for act of agent. For the purpose of this chapter the act, omission, or failure of any official, agent, or other person acting for any individual, association, partnership, corporation, or trust within the scope of his employment or office shall be deemed the act, omission, or failure of such individual, association, partnership, corporation, or trust, as well as of such official, agent, or other person. (Sept. 21, 1922, ch. 369, § 2 (a), 42 Stat. 998.) § 5. Resolution declaring dangerous tendency of dealings in commodity futures.-Transactions in commodities involving the sale thereof for future delivery as commonly conducted on boards of trade and known as "futures" are affected with a national public interest; such transactions are carried on in large volume by the public generally and by persons engaged in the business of buying and selling commodities and the products and byproducts thereof in interstate commerce; the prices involved in such transactions are generally quoted and disseminated throughout the United States and in foreign countries as a basis for determining the prices to the producer and the consumer of commodities and the products and byproducts thereof and to facilitate the movements thereof in interstate commerce; such transactions are utilized by shippers, dealers, millers and others engaged in handling commodities and the products and byproducts thereof in interstate commerce as a means of hedging themselves against possible loss through fluctuations in price; the transactions and prices of commodities on such boards of trade are susceptible to speculation, manipulation, and control, and sudden or unreasonable fluctuations in the prices thereof frequently occur as a result of such speculation, manipulation, or control, which are detrimental to the producer or the consumer and the persons handling commodities and products and byproducts thereof in interstate commerce, and such fluctuations in prices are an obstruction to and a burden upon interstate commerce in commodities and the products and byproducts thereof and render regulation imperative for the protection of such commerce and the national public interest therein. (Sept. 21, 1922, ch. 369, § 3, 42 Sta. 999; June 15, 1936, ch. 545, § 2, 49 Stat. 1491.) EFFECTIVE DATE See note under section 1 of this title. § 6. Prohibition against dealings in commodity futures; general exceptions.-It shall be unlawful for any person to deliver for transmission through the mails or in interstate commerce by telegraph, telephone, wireless, or other means of communication any offer to make or execute, or any confirmation of the execution of, any quotation or report of the price of, and contract of sale of any commodity for future delivery on or subject to the rules of any board of trade in the United States, or for any person to make or execute such contract of sale, which is or may be used for (a) hedging any transaction in interstate commerce in any commodity or the products or byproducts thereof, or (b) determining the price basis of any such transaction in interstate commerce, or (c) delivering any commodity sold, shipped, or received in interstate commerce for the fulfillment thereof, except, in any of the foregoing cases, where such contract is made by or through a member of a board of trade which has been designated by the Secretary of Agriculture as a "contract market," as hereinafter provided in this chapter, and if such contract is evidenced by a record in writing which shows the date, the parties to such contract and their addreses, the property covered and its price, and the terms of delivery: Provided, That each board member shall keep such record for a period of three years from the date thereof or for a longer period if the Secretary of Agriculture shall so direct, which record shall at all times be open to the inspection of any representative of the United States Department of Agriculture or the United States Department of Justice. (Sept. 21, 1922, ch. 369, § 4, 42 Stat. 999; June 15, 1936, ch. 545, §§ 2, 4, 49 Stat. 1491, 1492.) EFFECTIVE DATE See note under section 1 of this title. § 6a. Excessive speculation as burden on interstate commerce; trading limits; hedging transactions; application of section.(1) Excessive speculation in any commodity under contracts of sale of such commodity for future delivery made on or subject to the rules of contract markets causing sudden or unreasonable fluctuations or unwarranted changes in the price of such commodity, is an undue and unnecessary burden on interestate commerce in such commodity. For the purpose of diminishing, eliminating, or preventing such burden, the commission shall, from time to time, after due notice and opportunity for hearing, by order, proclaim and fix such limits on the amount of trading under contracts of sale of such commodity for future delivery on or subject to the rules of any contract market which may be done by any person as the commission finds is necessary to diminish, eliminate, or prevent such burden. Nothing in this section shall be construed to prohibit the commission from fixing different trading limits for different commodities, markets, futures, or delivery months, or different trading limits for buying and selling operations, or different limits for the purposes of subparagraphs (A) and (B) of this section, or from exempting transactions commonly known to the trade as "spreads" or "straddles" or from fixing trading limits applying to such transactions different from trading limits fixed for other transactions. (2) The commission shall, in such order, fix a reasonable time (not to exceed ten days) after the order's promulgation; after which, and until such order is suspended, modified, or revoked, it shall be unlawful for any person― (A) directly or indirectly to buy or sell, or agree to buy or sell, under contracts of sale of such commodity for future delivery on or subject to the rules of the 'contract market or markets to which the order applies, any amount of such commodity during any one business day in excess of any trading limit fixed for one busines day by the commission in such order for or with respect to such commodity; or (B) directly or indirectly to buy or sell, or agree to buy or sell, under contracts of sale of such commodity for future delivery on or subject to the rules of any contract market, any amount of such commodity that shall result in giving such person a net long or net short position at any one time in or with respect to any such commodity in excess of any trading limit fixed by the commission for net long or net short position in such order for or with respect to such commodity. (3) No order issued under paragraph (1) of this section shall apply to transactions which are shown to be bona fide hedging transactions. For the purposes of this paragraph, bona fide 650673°-46-12 hedging transactions shall mean sales of any commodity for future delivery on or subject to the rules of any board of trade to the extent that such sales are offset in quantity by the ownership or purchase of the same cash commodity or, conversely, purchases of any commodity for future delivery on or subject. to the rules of any board of trade to the extent that such purchases are offset by sales of the same cash commodity. There shall be included in the amount of any commodity which may be hedged by any person— (A) the amount of such commodity such person is raising, or in good faith intends or expects to raise, within the next twelve months, on land (in the United States or its Territories) which such person owns or leases; (B) an amount of such commodity the sale of which for future delivery would be a reasonable hedge against the products or byproducts of such commodity owner or purchased by such person, or the purchase of which for future delivery would be a reasonable hedge against the sale of any product or byproduct of such commodity by such person. (4) This section shall apply to a person that is registered as a futures commission merchant or as floor broker under authority of this chapter only to the extent that transactions made by such person are made on behalf of or for the account or benefit of such person. This section shall not apply to transactions made by, or on behalf of, or at the direction of, the United States, or a duly authorized agency thereof. (Sept. 21, 1922, ch. 369, § 4a, as added June 15, 1936, ch. 545, § 5, 49 Stat. 1492.) EFFECTIVE DATE See note under section 1 of this title. § 6b. Contracts designed to defraud or mislead customer; bucketing orders; buying and selling orders for cotton.-It shall be unlawful for any member of a contract market, or for any correspondent, agent, or employee of any member, in or in connection with any order to make, or the making of (1) any contract of sale of any commodity in interstate commerce, or (2) any contract of sale of any commodity for future delivery made, or to be made, on or subject to the rules of any contract market for or on behalf of any person if such contract for future delivery is or may be used for (a) hedging any transaction in interstate commerce in such commodity or the products or byproducts thereof, or (b) determining the price basis of any transaction in interstate commerce in such commodity, or (c) delivering any such commodity sold, shipped, or received in interstate commerce for the fulfillment thereof (A) to cheat or defraud or attempt to cheat or defraud such person; (B) willfully to make or cause to be made to such person any false report or statement thereof, or willfully to enter or cause to be entered for such person any false record thereof; (C) willfully to deceive or attempt to deceive such person by any means whatsoever in regard to any such order or contract or |