Agriculture (GAG) — Title 11. Weights and Measures

In this title the following words have the meanings indicated.

“Commodity in bulk” means the sale of a commodity when the quantity is determined at the time of sale.

“Commodity in package form” means a commodity packaged before sale in any manner including barrels, bags, sacks, cartons, or any other container constituting a unit quantity of the commodity, for either wholesale or retail use. Any individual item or lot of any commodity on which there is marked a selling price based on an established price per unit of weight or measure shall be considered a commodity in package form.

“Cord”, when used in connection with wood intended for any purpose, means the amount of wood contained in a space of 128 cubic feet, when the wood is ranked and well stowed.

“Package” means commodity in package form.

“Primary standards” means the physical standards of the State which serve as the legal reference from which all other standards and weights and measures are derived.

“Sale in bulk” means the sale of a commodity when the quantity is determined at the time of sale.

“Secondary standards” means the physical standards traceable to the primary standard through acceptable laboratory comparisons and used in enforcing weights and measures laws and rules and regulations.

“Sell” means barter and exchange.

“Shellfish” means any edible, aquatic, invertebrate animal having a shell.

“Weight” means net weight as used in this subtitle.

“Weight and measure” means any instrument or device used for weighing or measuring, and any appliance or accessory associated with any instrument or device used for weighing or measuring.

Have custody of the State primary standards of weights and measures and of the other standards and equipment provided for by this subtitle;

Keep accurate records of the standards and equipment;

Supervise the weights and measures offered for sale, sold, or used in the State; and

Submit a report of all the activities of his office during the previous fiscal year to the Governor and Legislative Policy Committee by September 30.

To enforce this title the Secretary may adopt regulations relating to:

The Secretary shall adopt regulations, specifications, tolerances, and other technical requirements for weights and measures of the character of those specified in § 11–204 of this subtitle designed to eliminate from use, without prejudice to any weight and measure that conforms as closely as feasible to the official standards, those that:

For the purposes of this title, a weight and measure is correct when it conforms to all applicable requirements promulgated as specified in this section. A nonconforming weight and measure is incorrect.

Upon the request of any competent State authority, the Secretary may inspect and test any weight and measure.

Unless otherwise provided, the Secretary may inspect and test to ascertain if they are correct, every weight and measure possessed, offered, or exposed for sale. The Secretary shall inspect and test every weight and measure commercially used in determining:

The Secretary may test with representative samples any single-service device or mass-produced device. The lot of which any sample is representative shall be held to be correct or incorrect upon the basis of the results of the inspections and tests on the samples. For the purposes of this section, a single-service device is a device designed to be used commercially only once and then discarded; and a mass-produced device is a device produced by means of a mold or die and not susceptible of individual adjustment.

The Secretary shall conduct inspections as provided in a memorandum of understanding on behalf of and in coordination with other agencies when performing weights and measures inspections at gasoline retailing operations.

The Secretary may establish a program to test any weight and measure to determine if it conforms to the requirements of the National Conference on Weights and Measures.

The Secretary may:

There is a Weight and Measure Testing Fund within the Maryland Department of Agriculture. The Fund is a special fund established for the purpose of paying the expenses incurred in testing and approving any weight and measure as provided under this section. Unspent portions of the Fund shall revert to the General Fund of the State.

Unless issued a certificate of approval from the Secretary, a person may not represent any weight and measure as approved under this section.

Except as provided in subsection (b) of this section, unless registered with the Secretary under § 11-204.3 or § 11-204.4 of this subtitle, a weight and measure may not be used or possessed for current use for:

This section does not apply to counting scales.

Submit to the Secretary an application on the form that the Secretary provides; and

Pay to the Secretary the appropriate registration fee established in § 11-204.7 of this subtitle.

Unless a registration for a weight and measure is renewed for a 1–year term, the license expires 1 year from the effective date of the registration.

At least 1 month before a registration for a weight and measure expires, the Secretary shall send each person with a known registration, by electronic means or first–class mail to the last known electronic or mailing address of the person, a registration renewal form and a renewal notice that states:

Before a registration for a weight and measure expires, the registration may be renewed for an additional 1–year term, if the applicant:

A person who has a registration for a weight and measure has a grace period of 60 days after the registration expires in which to renew the registration retroactively, if the person:

The owner or possessor of a weight and measure shall display the registration conspicuously at each place of business where the weight and measure is located.

If the weight and measure is sold, transferred, or moved to a new location, the owner or possessor of a weight and measure shall notify the Secretary.

The weight and measure does not meet the requirements of this title; or

An owner or possessor uses the weight and measure in violation of this title or in violation of any regulation adopted by the Secretary under this title.

The Secretary may investigate any complaint of any violation of this title. Upon his own initiative, the Secretary also may conduct any investigation he deems appropriate and advisable to develop information on prevailing procedures in commercial quantity determinations and on possible violations of the provisions of this title, and to promote accuracy in the determination and representation of quantity in commercial transactions.

The Secretary shall weigh or measure and inspect any package or amount of a commodity possessed, offered, or exposed for sale, sold, or being delivered, to determine whether it contains the amount represented and whether it is possessed, offered, or exposed for sale, sold, or is being delivered in accordance with this title.

In carrying out the provisions of this section, the Secretary may employ recognized sampling procedures to determine the compliance of a given lot of packages on the basis of the result obtained on a sample selected from and representative of the lot.

For the purpose of this title, proof of the existence of a weight and measure in or about any building, enclosure, stand, or vehicle in which or from which it is shown that buying or selling is commonly carried on, shall be presumptive evidence of regular use of the weight and measure for commercial purposes and of use by the person in charge of the building, enclosure, stand, or vehicle.

The Secretary shall approve for use and seal or mark with the appropriate device any weight and measure that he finds to be “correct” as defined in § 11-203(d) but sealing or marking of weights and measures exempted under § 11-203 is not required.

The Secretary shall reject and mark or tag as “condemned for repair”, in a manner to preclude further use, any weight and measure he finds to be “incorrect” as defined in § 11-203(d), but which he determines can be repaired satisfactorily. He shall condemn and may seize and destroy weights and measures found to be incorrect which he determines cannot be repaired satisfactorily. The owners or users of weights and measures condemned for repair shall have them made correct within a reasonable period specified by the Secretary, or may dispose of them in a manner specifically authorized by the Secretary.

Weights and measures which have been condemned for repair may not be used commercially until reexamined by the Secretary and found to be correct, until the Secretary issues written permission for use, or until the weight or measure is adjusted, repaired, and determined to be “correct” by some person authorized by rule or regulation of the Secretary. Any weights and measures condemned for repair may be confiscated by the Secretary if not corrected as required by this section or if used or disposed of contrary to the requirements of this section.

Owners and users of weights and measures used commercially, as indicated in § 11-204(b), shall take adequate precautions, consistent with degree of use and environment, to insure that they are “correct” as defined in § 11-203(d).

Unless it is approved by the Secretary, a person may not offer to sell or sell any commercial weight and measure in this State.

The Secretary may deny or revoke any approval if the Secretary determines that:

This section does not apply to:

A weight and measure, unless inspected and approved by the Secretary, may not be used or possessed for current use for:

A person is not liable for a violation of subsection (a) of this section, if:

A person may not impersonate in any way the Secretary or use the Secretary’s seal or a counterfeit of it in any manner. Any person who violates this subsection is guilty of a misdemeanor and, upon conviction, is subject to a fine not exceeding $1,000, or by imprisonment not exceeding one year, or both, with costs imposed in the discretion of the court.

A person, on the person’s own behalf, or by a servant or agent, or as the servant or agent of another person, may not:

Instead of pursuing criminal charges provided in this article, the Secretary may impose on any person who violates this title a civil penalty of:

Penalties collected by the Secretary under this section shall be paid into the General Fund of the State.

The Secretary shall adopt regulations necessary to carry out the provisions of this section.

If the Secretary finds that any package or amount of any commodity is possessed, offered, or exposed for sale in violation of law, the Secretary may order them off-sale and may mark or tag them to show they are illegal.

Whenever the Secretary finds that any violation of this subtitle or any rule or regulation adopted under it has occurred, he may issue a stop-use order, stop-removal order, and removal order with respect to weights and measures being, or capable of being, commercially used. He may issue stop-removal orders and removal orders with respect to any package or amount of any commodity possessed, offered, or exposed for sale, sold, or being delivered if he deems it necessary for the protection of the public.

No person may sell, use, remove, otherwise dispose of, or fail to remove from the premises specified, any weight, measure, or package or an amount of any commodity contrary to the terms of any order issued under this section.

This section does not limit the right of the Secretary to proceed as authorized by other sections of this title.

The system of weights and measures in customary use in the United States and the metric system of weights and measures are jointly recognized. Either one or both of these systems shall be used for all commercial purposes in the State. The definitions of the basic units of weight and measure, the tables of weight and measure, and weights and measures equivalents as published by the National Institute of Standards and Technology are recognized and shall govern weighing and measuring equipment and transactions in the State except as otherwise provided.

The term “unit” may not be used or allowed to be used as a standard or norm of measure of wood intended for any purpose.

Fractional parts of any unit defined in § 11–101 of this title and this section shall mean like fractional parts of the value of the unit as defined.

All contracts concerning the sale of commodities shall be construed in accordance with the provisions of this section.

Any weight and measure conforming with the standards of the United States for primary standards or otherwise obtained by the State for use as primary standards shall be the State primary standards of weights and measures if approved by the National Institute of Standards and Technology.

The State primary standards shall be maintained in a safe and suitable place in the laboratory of the office of the Secretary and may not be removed from the laboratory, except for repairs or for calibration.

The traceability of the State primary standards to the United States prototype standards kept by the National Institute of Standards and Technology shall be verified at least once every ten years.

All secondary standards procured for the enforcement of this title shall be calibrated and verified as accurate according to the State primary standards. Traceability to the State primary standards and services of the laboratory facilities may be made available to any interested person. The Secretary may adopt rules and regulations establishing procedures and reasonable fees for this service.

A commodity in liquid form shall be sold only by liquid measure or by weight, except as otherwise provided in this title. A commodity not in liquid form may be sold only by weight, dry measure, length, area, or count. However, a liquid commodity may be sold by weight and a commodity not in liquid form may be sold by count only if these methods give accurate information as to the quantity of commodity sold.

The provisions of this section do not apply to:

The Secretary may adopt any reasonable rules and regulations necessary to assure that any amount of commodity sold is determined according to good commercial practice and is determined and represented to be accurate and informative to all interested parties.

Unless otherwise provided, any commodity in a package form shall bear on the outside of the package a definite, plain, and conspicuous declaration of:

In addition to the declarations required by this section, if any commodity is in package form and the package is one of a lot containing random weights, measures, or counts of the same commodity and bearing the total selling price of the package, the commodity shall bear on the outside of the package a plain and conspicuous declaration of the price per single unit of weight, measure, or count.

Any rule or regulation adopted under this section may not conflict with the provisions of the Code and rules and regulations relating to unit pricing of consumer commodities.

A commodity in package form may not be wrapped deceptively or be in a container made, formed, or filled in a manner that misleads the purchaser in determining the quantity of the contents of the package. The contents of a container may not fall below any reasonable standard of fill the Secretary prescribes for the commodity in question.

If a commodity in package form is advertised in any manner and the retail price of the package is stated in the advertisement, a declaration of the basic quantity of contents of the package shall be closely and conspicuously associated with the price statement, as is required by law or rule or regulation to appear on the package. However, where the law or rule or regulation requires a dual declaration of net quantity to appear on the package, only the declaration that sets forth the quantity in terms of the smaller unit of weight or measure need appear in the advertisement.

No qualifying terms, such as, “when packed”, “minimum”, “not less than”, any other terms of similar meaning, nor any term qualifying a unit of weight, measure, or count that tends to exaggerate the amount of commodity in the package may be included as part of the declaration required by this section.

The provisions of this section may not apply to: (1) aggregates, concrete mixtures, asphaltic concrete, loose solid materials such as earth, soil, sand, gravel, crushed stone, shale, and stone products other than agricultural lime; and (2) a petroleum product composed predominately of propane, propylene, butane, isobutane, butylenes, or mixtures of those products.

If any commodity or service is sold, offered, exposed, or advertised for sale by weight, measure, or count, the price may not be misrepresented or represented in any manner calculated or tending to mislead or deceive an actual or prospective purchaser.

If an advertised, posted, or labeled price per unit of weight, measure, or count includes a fraction of a cent, every element of the fraction shall be displayed prominently and the numerals expressing the fraction shall be immediately adjacent to, of the same general design and style as, and at least one half the height and width of any numeral representing the whole cents.

When meat, poultry, or seafood is combined with or associated with some other food element to form either a distinctive food product or a food combination, the food product or combination shall be offered or exposed for sale, and sold by weight, the quantity representation may be the total weight of the product or combination and a quantity representation is not required for each element of the product or combination.

All fluid dairy products, including whole milk, skimmed milk, cultured milk, sweet cream, and buttermilk shall be sold by fluid volume.

Cottage cheese, cottage cheese products, sour cream, and yogurt shall be sold by weight.

If hand dipped, any of the items listed in subsection (c) of this section may be sold by weight, fluid volume, or the serving.

All liquid fuel shall be sold by liquid measure or by net weight in accordance with the provisions of § 11–304 of this subtitle. Price lists of liquid fuel shall be posted or otherwise made available upon request.

Upon delivery of liquid fuel not in package form and in an amount greater than ten gallons in the case of sale by liquid measure, or 100 pounds in the case of sale by weight, a delivery ticket or written statement shall be delivered to the purchaser, either at the time of delivery or within a period mutually agreed upon in writing or otherwise between the vendor and the purchaser. The delivery ticket or a written statement shall have the following information clearly readable in ink or by means of other indelible marking equipment:

The provisions of subsection (b) of this section do not apply to deliveries of liquid fuel made on the premises of the vendor if the vendor is supplying the fuel tank of a motor vehicle, motorized equipment, aircraft, or watercraft. The requirement of subsection (b)(4) of this section does not apply when the product is liquified petroleum gas, which is defined for the purpose of this subsection as a petroleum product composed predominately of propane, propylene, butane, isobutane, butylenes, or mixtures of those products, if the delivery ticket, written statement, or invoice states that the price list is available on request. A ticket or other written statement accompanying the delivery of any other liquid fuels and used only as a bill of lading or manifest is exempt from the requirement of subsection (b)(4) of this section if the ticket or written statement utilized as an invoice for payment indicates all of the information set forth in subsection (b) of this section.

In this subtitle the following words have the meanings indicated.

“Calibrate” means to determine the value of, to mark correctly, and, when appropriate, to correct elements of an indicating system or other device on a milk tank.

“Cooperative” means a corporation or association as defined in the Corporations and Associations Article. A cooperative is a producer and a purchaser within the provisions of this subtitle.

“Milk or other fluid dairy products” means the lacteal secretion obtained from a cow and any fluid component of the secretion, before any processing or manufacturing other than cream separation processing.

“Producer” means any person who owns, controls, or operates a dairy herd for the production of milk or other fluid dairy products to be sold or offered for sale.

“Purchaser” means the person who pays the producer or cooperative representing any producer for milk or other fluid dairy products.

“Sample” means the portion of a person’s shipment that may be used for an analysis of milk components that affects payment for the milk or other fluid dairy products.

Except as provided in §§ 10–14A–03 and 10–14B–03 of the State Government Article, every purchaser or hauler of milk or other fluid dairy products who is involved in the testing of samples shall have these operations performed only by individuals licensed by the Secretary.

Except as provided in §§ 10–14A–03 and 10–14B–03 of the State Government Article, any person who calibrates a farm milk tank, other than the owner of the tank, first shall obtain a license from the Secretary.

Any individual required to obtain a license to calibrate farm milk tanks or test milk or other fluid dairy products shall apply to the Secretary and pay an examination fee. If the applicant satisfactorily passes an appropriate examination conducted by the Secretary, the applicant is entitled to receive the kind of license for which he qualifies upon the payment of a fee.

Every license is valid for the license year for which it is issued unless revoked or suspended. Each license may be renewed annually without examination upon application and payment of a renewal fee.

Every cooperative or other purchaser shall notify the producer of the results of any test and the basis of payment. The cooperative or other purchaser shall maintain records of the tests and payment in a manner specified by the Secretary.

Every hauler, upon receipt of milk or other fluid dairy products, shall provide immediately the producer with a written statement indicating the correct quantity received. He shall provide also the cooperative or other purchaser with a written quantity statement upon delivering the milk or other fluid dairy products. The statement provided to the producer and the cooperative or other purchaser shall contain other information as specified by the Secretary.

When testing milk or other fluid dairy products, a person required to have a license under this subtitle may not use any testing equipment which does not conform to the specifications, tolerances, and other technical requirements of the National Institute of Standards and Technology Handbook 44, as amended, or the official publication of the Association of Official Analytical Chemists as amended, and which is not inspected, tested, and approved by the Secretary. The Secretary may charge a reasonable fee for each item of equipment inspected.

When a producer’s weighing or measuring device is used to determine the quantity affecting payment for milk or other fluid dairy products, the device and its use shall conform to the specifications, tolerances, and other technical requirements of the National Institute of Standards and Technology Handbook 44, as amended. These requirements shall remain in effect unless the Secretary modifies or rescinds the requirements, by rule or regulation.

Samples that may be used as a basis for payment shall be taken, maintained and tested in the manner and within the period of time specified by the Secretary.

A person may not alter a sample so that its test results will indicate lower or higher than the actual test results of the milk or other fluid dairy product from which it is taken.

Any person subject to this subtitle, and his agent or employee, shall present for inspection, the license issued under this subtitle, as required by rule or regulation, or on request of the Secretary.

All information obtained by the Secretary from the records of any person shall be kept confidential by all officers and employees. Only the information required to be revealed in any proceedings brought under this subtitle may be disclosed. This section does not prohibit the compilation of statistical reports from the information acquired, if the compilation does not identify the person furnishing any specific information.

Any person who violates § 11–409, § 11–410, or § 11–411 of this subtitle is guilty of a misdemeanor and, on conviction, is subject to a fine of not less than $100 and not exceeding $1,000, or imprisonment of not more than nine months, or both, with costs imposed in the discretion of the court.

Any person found guilty of a second or subsequent violation of § 11–409, § 11–410, or § 11–411 of this subtitle is subject to a fine of not less than $1,000, or imprisonment of not less than nine months, or both, with costs imposed in the discretion of the court.