DECEPTIVE ADVERTISING
Virtually every state has one or more consumer protection statutes. However, they are not all identical. Most cover the sale of consumer goods. Some also cover sale of services, real estate
and other products.
Typically, they prohibit the making of false, misleading or otherwise deceptive advertising regarding the products and/or services covered by the statute.
False, misleading or otherwise deceptive advertising can take many forms. Among the most common are the following:
False or misleading claims regarding the product’s contents, benefits or effectiveness. |
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Inaccurate ingredient labels |
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Phony sales and misleading price comparisons. |
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UNSOLICITED TELEMARKETERS
Most consumer protection statutes are state statutes. But there are also federal consumer protection statutes. One is the Telephone Protection Act (47 U.S.C. §227). The TCPA provides that except for emergency purposes, with certain limited exceptions, it is unlawful to make a call to a cell phone or residential telephone line using any automatic telephone dialing system or an artificial or prerecorded voice without the prior express consent of the called party.
And generally, it is also unlawful to send an unsolicited advertisement to a fax machine unless the unsolicited ad is from a sender with an established business relationship with the recipient.
Unwanted phone, fax or text solicitations. |
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