Title 7 — AgricultureRelease 119-73
§136h Protection of trade secrets and other information
Title 7 › Chapter CHAPTER 6— - INSECTICIDES AND ENVIRONMENTAL PESTICIDE CONTROL › Subchapter SUBCHAPTER II— - ENVIRONMENTAL PESTICIDE CONTROL › § 136h
Summary
Applicants may mark parts of their submissions as trade secrets or commercial or financial information and send those parts separately. The Administrator must keep information judged to be trade secrets or confidential from the public. Still, product formulas needed to carry out the law can be shared with other federal agencies or shown at a public hearing or in official findings. If the Administrator plans to release such protected information, the submitter must be told in writing by certified mail and the information cannot be made public until 30 days after the submitter receives that notice. During those 30 days the submitter can go to court to ask whether the information must be kept secret. Data about the goals, methods, results, or meaning of tests and studies on pesticides and their effects on people, animals, plants, or the environment must be open to the public, but that does not include manufacturing or quality-control processes, methods for detecting certain inert ingredients, or the identity or percentage of deliberately added inert ingredients. Sales, production, or inventory data that would otherwise be confidential may be released in a public proceeding if the Administrator finds it needed in the public interest. For release of the more sensitive items, the Administrator must again notify by certified mail and wait 30 days (or not less than 10 days if there is an imminent serious health risk); the submitter may sue to block or limit release and a court can do so. The Administrator may give confidential information to U.S. contractors if needed for their work and if they follow required security rules; those contractors and their employees are treated as U.S. employees for these rules. Any federal officer, employee, or former employee who willfully and knowingly discloses prohibited material may be fined up to $10,000, imprisoned up to one year, or both. The Administrator must not knowingly give data to foreign pesticide makers or their agents without the submitter’s consent, must require inspectors to promise they will not deliver the data to such foreign businesses, must keep a record of who gets the data and tell the submitter, and a false promise is a federal crime.
Full Legal Text
Title 7, §136h
Agriculture — Source: USLM XML via OLRC
(a)In submitting data required by this subchapter, the applicant may (1) clearly mark any portions thereof which in the applicant’s opinion are trade secrets or commercial or financial information and (2) submit such market material separately from other material required to be submitted under this subchapter.
(b)Notwithstanding any other provision of this subchapter and subject to the limitations in subsections (d) and (e) of this section, the Administrator shall not make public information which in the Administrator’s judgment contains or relates to trade secrets or commercial or financial information obtained from a person and privileged or confidential, except that, when necessary to carry out the provisions of this subchapter, information relating to formulas of products acquired by authorization of this subchapter may be revealed to any Federal agency consulted and may be revealed at a public hearing or in findings of fact issued by the Administrator.
(c)If the Administrator proposes to release for inspection information which the applicant or registrant believes to be protected from disclosure under subsection (b), the Administrator shall notify the applicant or registrant, in writing, by certified mail. The Administrator shall not thereafter make available for inspection such data until thirty days after receipt of the notice by the applicant or registrant. During this period, the applicant or registrant may institute an action in an appropriate district court for a declaratory judgment as to whether such information is subject to protection under subsection (b).
(d)(1)All information concerning the objectives, methodology, results, or significance of any test or experiment performed on or with a registered or previously registered pesticide or its separate ingredients, impurities, or degradation products, and any information concerning the effects of such pesticide on any organism or the behavior of such pesticide in the environment, including, but not limited to, data on safety to fish and wildlife, humans and other mammals, plants, animals, and soil, and studies on persistence, translocation and fate in the environment, and metabolism, shall be available for disclosure to the public. The use of such data for any registration purpose shall be governed by section 136a of this title. This paragraph does not authorize the disclosure of any information that—
(A)discloses manufacturing or quality control processes,
(B)discloses the details of any methods for testing, detecting, or measuring the quantity of any deliberately added inert ingredient of a pesticide, or
(C)discloses the identity or percentage quantity of any deliberately added inert ingredient of a pesticide,
(2)Information concerning production, distribution, sale, or inventories of a pesticide that is otherwise entitled to confidential treatment under subsection (b) of this section may be publicly disclosed in connection with a public proceeding to determine whether a pesticide, or any ingredient of a pesticide, causes unreasonable adverse effects on health or the environment, if the Administrator determines that such disclosure is necessary in the public interest.
(3)If the Administrator proposes to disclose information described in clause (A), (B), or (C) of paragraph (1) or in paragraph (2) of this subsection, the Administrator shall notify by certified mail the submitter of such information of the intent to release such information. The Administrator may not release such information, without the submitter’s consent, until thirty days after the submitter has been furnished such notice. Where the Administrator finds that disclosure of information described in clause (A), (B), or (C) of paragraph (1) of this subsection is necessary to avoid or lessen an imminent and substantial risk of injury to the public health, the Administrator may set such shorter period of notice (but not less than ten days) and such method of notice as the Administrator finds appropriate. During such period the data submitter may institute an action in an appropriate district court to enjoin or limit the proposed disclosure. The court may enjoin disclosure, or limit the disclosure or the parties to whom disclosure shall be made, to the extent that—
(A)in the case of information described in clause (A), (B), or (C) of paragraph (1) of this subsection, the proposed disclosure is not required to protect against an unreasonable risk of injury to health or the environment; or
(B)in the case of information described in paragraph (2) of this subsection, the public interest in availability of the information in the public proceeding does not outweigh the interests in preserving the confidentiality of the information.
(e)Information otherwise protected from disclosure to the public under subsection (b) of this section may be disclosed to contractors with the United States and employees of such contractors if, in the opinion of the Administrator, such disclosure is necessary for the satisfactory performance by the contractor of a contract with the United States for the performance of work in connection with this subchapter and under such conditions as the Administrator may specify. The Administrator shall require as a condition to the disclosure of information under this subsection that the person receiving it take such security precautions respecting the information as the Administrator shall by regulation prescribe.
(f)(1)Any officer or employee of the United States or former officer or employee of the United States who, by virtue of such employment or official position, has obtained possession of, or has access to, material the disclosure of which is prohibited by subsection (b) of this section, and who, knowing that disclosure of such material is prohibited by such subsection, willfully discloses the material in any manner to any person not entitled to receive it, shall be fined not more than $10,000 or imprisoned for not more than one year, or both. Section 1905 of title 18 shall not apply with respect to the publishing, divulging, disclosure, or making known of, or making available, information reported or otherwise obtained under this subchapter. Nothing in this subchapter shall preempt any civil remedy under State or Federal law for wrongful disclosure of trade secrets.
(2)For the purposes of this section, any contractor with the United States who is furnished information as authorized by subsection (e) of this section, or any employee of any such contractor, shall be considered to be an employee of the United States.
(g)(1)The Administrator shall not knowingly disclose information submitted by an applicant or registrant under this subchapter to any employee or agent of any business or other entity engaged in the production, sale, or distribution of pesticides in countries other than the United States or in addition to the United States or to any other person who intends to deliver such data to such foreign or multinational business or entity unless the applicant or registrant has consented to such disclosure. The Administrator shall require an affirmation from any person who intends to inspect data that such person does not seek access to the data for purposes of delivering it or offering it for sale to any such business or entity or its agents or employees and will not purposefully deliver or negligently cause the data to be delivered to such business or entity or its agents or employees. Notwithstanding any other provision of this subsection, the Administrator may disclose information to any person in connection with a public proceeding under law or regulation, subject to restrictions on the availability of information contained elsewhere in this subchapter, which information is relevant to a determination by the Administrator with respect to whether a pesticide, or any ingredient of a pesticide, causes unreasonable adverse effects on health or the environment.
(2)The Administrator shall maintain records of the names of persons to whom data are disclosed under this subsection and the persons or organizations they represent and shall inform the applicant or registrant of the names and affiliations of such persons.
(3)Section 1001 of title 18 shall apply to any affirmation made under paragraph (1) of this subsection.
Legislative History
Notes & Related Subsidiaries
Editorial Notes
Prior Provisions
A prior section 10 of act
June 25, 1947, was classified to section 135h of this title prior to amendment of act
June 25, 1947, by Pub. L. 92–516.
Amendments
1991—Subsec. (a). Pub. L. 102–237, § 1006(b)(3)(J), substituted “the applicant’s” for “his”. Subsec. (b). Pub. L. 102–237, § 1006(b)(2), substituted “the Administrator’s” for “his”. Subsec. (c). Pub. L. 102–237, § 1006(b)(1), substituted “the Administrator” for “he” before “shall notify”. 1988—Subsec. (d). Pub. L. 100–532 in par. (1), substituted “public. The use” for “public: Provided, That the use” and “title. This paragraph” for “title: Provided further, That this paragraph”, and in par. (3), “notice. Where” for “notice: Provided, That where”. 1984—Subsec. (d)(3). Pub. L. 98–620 struck out provisions requiring the court to give expedited consideration to actions involving injunctions or limitations of proposed disclosure. 1978—Subsec. (b). Pub. L. 95–396, § 15(1), made disclosure of information by the Administrator subject to the limitations of subsecs. (d) and (e) of this section. Subsecs. (d) to (g). Pub. L. 95–396, § 15(2), added subsecs. (d) to (g).
Statutory Notes and Related Subsidiaries
Effective Date
of 1988 AmendmentAmendment by Pub. L. 100–532 effective on expiration of 60 days after Oct. 25, 1988, see section 901 of Pub. L. 100–532, set out as a note under section 136 of this title.
Effective Date
of 1984 AmendmentAmendment by Pub. L. 98–620 not applicable to cases pending on Nov. 8, 1984, see section 403 of Pub. L. 98–620, set out as an
Effective Date
note under section 1657 of Title 28, Judiciary and Judicial Procedure.
Effective Date
For
Effective Date
of section, see section 4 of Pub. L. 92–516, set out as a note under section 136 of this title.
Reference
Citations & Metadata
Citation
7 U.S.C. § 136h
Title 7 — Agriculture
Last Updated
Apr 6, 2026
Release point: 119-73