Three things a label rule can do
On this page11
Almost every rule described across these properties compels a disclosure
State a net weight. State a fiber content. Print a hazard statement and a pictogram. Give a care instruction. Mark a container with the words Used Oil. The requirement is that something be said.
One rule in this library forbids a true statement
A fiber present in less than five percent of the total fiber weight may not be designated by its generic name or trademark and must be called other fiber. The suppressed fact is accurate and may not be printed.
And this one prohibits a false statement
It is unlawful to make or submit any false record, account, or label for, or any false identification of, any fish, wildlife, or plant which has been or is intended to be imported, exported, transported, sold, purchased or received from any foreign country, or transported in interstate or foreign commerce.
Three different postures, and the difference matters
A rule that compels is satisfied by saying the required thing. A rule that suppresses is breached by saying a true thing. A rule that prohibits falsity is silent about what you say and concerned only with whether it is so.
Which means this one imposes no format at all
There is no required content, no panel, no type size, no prescribed words. The entire requirement is accuracy, and a party that says nothing has not breached it.
Record, account, label and identification are four different objects
A record and an account are internal documents. A label is on the goods. An identification is an act rather than a thing. All four are inside the prohibition.
And it reaches a document submitted as well as one made
To make or submit. So passing on somebody else’s false record is inside the provision, which matters in a supply chain where paperwork is forwarded rather than written.
The scope is defined by where the goods are going
Imported, exported, transported, sold, purchased or received from any foreign country, or transported in interstate or foreign commerce. A purely local transaction is outside it.
Which is the one place this section does not borrow
Falsity is decided by comparing a statement against the world rather than against another sovereign’s rule. It is the only limb of the section that can be assessed from its own words.
And it is the posture the next section needs
Because the closure fit table on this shelf makes 9,273 assertions on this shelf alone, almost none of which records why it is believed to be true.