94.70 Pesticides; prohibited acts.

(1) No person may distribute, sell, offer for sale, hold for sale, ship, deliver for shipment or receive for distribution, delivery or sale to any person in this state whether or not the acts or transactions take place in intrastate commerce or between points within this state through any point outside this state, any pesticide:

(a) Which has not been registered as required under the federal act or rules of the department.

(b) About which claims are made, or directions for use are given, which differ in substance from representations made in connection with its registration under the federal act or rules of the department.

(c) Which differs in composition from the composition represented in connection with its registration under the federal act or rules of the department.

(d) Unless it is in the registrant's, manufacturer's or packer's unbroken immediate container and labeled as required under the federal act or rules of the department.

(e) Which has not been colored or discolored as required under the federal act or rules of the department.

(f) Which is adulterated or misbranded, or violates any other provision of the federal act or ss. 94.67 to 94.71 or rules of the department.

(2) The prohibitions of sub. (1) shall not apply to:

(a) Any carrier while engaged in transporting a pesticide within this state, if such carrier permits the department on request to copy all records showing the transactions in and movement of the products.

(b) Public officials of this state and the federal government engaged in the performance of their official duties.

(c) Persons using or possessing a pesticide in accordance with the terms and conditions of an experimental use permit issued under the federal act or rules of the department.

(d) Articles consigned for shipment to another state or for export to a foreign country, if prepared or packed according to the specifications or directions of the purchaser.

(e) Any person shipping a substance or mixture of substances only in the conduct of screening tests to determine its usefulness or value as a pesticide or its toxicity or other properties and from which the person does not expect to receive any pest control benefit from its use.

(3) No person may:

(a) Detach, alter, deface or destroy, in whole or in part, any label or labeling required under the federal act or under ss. 94.67 to 94.71 or rules under ss. 94.67 to 94.71, or add any substance to or take any substance from any pesticide in a manner that may defeat the purposes of the laws.

(b) Use for personal advantage or reveal, other than to federal or state agencies, the courts, physicians, pharmacists or other persons requiring the information for the performance of their duties, any information relative to formulas acquired in the administration of ss. 94.67 to 94.71 which may be confidential under the federal act or otherwise constitute a trade secret as defined in s. 134.90 (1) (c).

(c) Advertise pesticides registered for restricted-use as a registrant, manufacturer, wholesaler, dealer, retailer or other distributor without disclosing that the pesticides are classified as restricted-use pesticides.

(d) Use or make available for use any restricted-use pesticide contrary to its labeling or other restrictions or exemptions imposed on its use under the federal act or the laws of this state.

(e) Claim falsely to be a certified applicator in one or more uses of any pesticide.

(f) Use or direct the use of pesticides as a certified applicator in categories of pesticide use and application for which no certification has been obtained.

(g) Use any pesticide in a manner inconsistent with its labeling except as authorized by the department.

(h) Use any pesticide under an experimental use permit contrary to the provisions of the permit.

(i) Fail to maintain records or file reports as required under ss. 94.67 to 94.71 or rules under ss. 94.67 to 94.71 or falsify records or reports or any application filed with the department.

(j) Violate any other provisions of ss. 94.67 to 94.71 or orders or rules issued under ss. 94.67 to 94.71.

History: 1975 c. 94 s. 91 (10); 1977 c. 106; 1985 a. 236; 1987 a. 27.

A “negligence per se" instruction was appropriate when a violation of sub. (3) (g) damaged a beekeeper's hives. Bennett v. Larsen Co. 118 Wis. 2d 681, 348 N.W.2d 540 (1984).

Sub. (1) (b) was, as a matter of law, violated by the defendant when the federal label, which represented the minimum information that could have been submitted to the department, provided that application of the herbicide after 50 percent emergence might reduce yields, when a representative of the defendant told the plaintiff that the plaintiff's potatoes would only be singed a little by applying the herbicide after 50 percent emergence. Perzinski v. Chevron Chemical Co. 503 F.2d 654 (1974).