33
votes
Is customer entitled to the same car tested in the test drive or in the ad?
As described, this may be a form of illegal bait-and-switch advertising, but not breach of contract. The contract states the specific vehicle to be sold, which does not match the test-driven car. If ...
- 210k
28
votes
Accepted
Is it false advertising to call a closed-source program "open"?
The limits of "deceptive advertising" are determined by lawsuit. This note assembles a number of cases where names were or were not held to be per se deceptive ("Diet Coke" is not ...
- 210k
20
votes
Is it false advertising to call a closed-source program "open"?
OpenVMS does not advertise itself as "open-source", nor does the the name indicate it's open-source. For example, if the name were "OpenSourceVMS" then there might be a basis for ...
- 3,498
11
votes
Is it legal to describe something exactly as "cheese" without asterisks or other qualification if it doesn't contain any dairy?
I'll limit my answer to the specific example in the question:
our cheese is made of 100% plant ingredients
This is not false advertising or a deceptive trade practice. It is legal. This is because ...
- 194k
7
votes
Conflicting information in different points - is it false advertising if one is wrong?
Adam receives the battery the next week and finds that it is 10ah when he had wanted to buy a 10ah battery.
Reliance on the erroneous information is a necessary element to a misrepresentation claim. ...
- 43k
6
votes
Why does airline benefits program advertising not violate truth-in-advertising laws?
Airline miles are pegged to the miles you fly
For those airlines which still call their points miles (many don’t) you usually earn 1 mile for each full-fare economy nautical mile flown. More for ...
- 197k
6
votes
Is it false advertising to call a closed-source program "open"?
As @jwh20 said, OpenVMS is not advertised as being open-source, it just uses the word "Open" in its name. There are many other products that use this naming style that are also not open ...
- 1,732
6
votes
Accepted
What are the legal issues when using copyrighted images to advertise a product that doesn't contain them?
The issue you identify isn't really a copyright issue. The same issue would arise if the product contained public domain images in the advertisements that aren't present in the work itself.
...
- 194k
5
votes
Is customer entitled to the same car tested in the test drive or in the ad?
Simplistically, here in the UK it's rather clear that if a customer acts on information you provided; more so in a professional capacity then what goes wrong is your responsibility.
Logically, the ...
- 305
5
votes
Accepted
"last chance!" Fraudulent marketing
The Advertising Standards Authority is the body in the UK that regulates advertising, and is backstopped legally by Trading Standards.
In both the "CAP" code that covers non-broadcast media (...
- 4,328
5
votes
Bait and switch - written vs oral obligation
Do you have a contract?
It depends on the website’s terms but almost certainly not.
It is standard practice in e-commerce terms and conditions that your selecting “buy” and giving the vendor money ...
- 197k
5
votes
Can they legally falsify paternity on an obituary?
My boyfriends daughter died. He is her legal father and by blood, he
is on the birth certificate. As well as paternity established. Her
mother did the obituary and listed her boyfriend the father/...
- 194k
5
votes
Accepted
Is it legal to describe something exactly as "cheese" without asterisks or other qualification if it doesn't contain any dairy?
In EU there is legislation against using the name "cheese" for non.diary products. This was unsuccessfully challenged in 2017 by company Tofutown:
https://curia.europa.eu/jcms/upload/docs/...
- 66
4
votes
Is it legal to describe something exactly as "cheese" without asterisks or other qualification if it doesn't contain any dairy?
I am not a lawyer (and thus I may be misinterpreting the regulations), and I do not know if the UK law in this area has changed since leaving the EU, but it appears that this may not be legal due to ...
- 171
4
votes
Is it false advertising if an ad lies about the presentation of the ad but not about the product/service itself?
united-states
Yes.
Last week, the FTC issued a statement explicitly stating that the following practice, among others, is a violation of the FTC act:
misrepresenting an endorser as an actual, current,...
- 1,363
4
votes
Is it false advertising if an ad lies about the presentation of the ad but not about the product/service itself?
Yes
australia
This is a straight up and down case of “deceptive and misleading conduct”. There is plenty of case law to support that testimonials (which this is) must be genuine, not paid for as they ...
- 197k
4
votes
Is there federal liability for broadcasting a false advertisement
There can be liability. 15 USC 52 says that "It shall be unlawful for any person, partnership, or corporation to disseminate, or cause to be disseminated, any false advertisement". In the ...
- 210k
3
votes
What's the legality (and potential recourse) of selling something as Tuna that isn't Tuna at all
Federal deceptive advertising regulations do not apply to restaurant menus, and sale of escolar is legal in the US. Legal recourse would have to be via state law. Such legal action is conceivable, for ...
- 210k
3
votes
Is it false advertising if an ad lies about the presentation of the ad but not about the product/service itself?
Yes for California.
Depending on whether it’s a service, a goods or a person they promote Civ. Code § 1770 (a) (2) or (5) would apply:
“The following unfair methods of competition and unfair or ...
- 3,875
2
votes
Can they legally falsify paternity on an obituary?
An obituary is not a public record under Ohio law, see ORC 149.42. Anyone is free to publish a false statement, up to the point that it constitutes fraud, deceptive advertising, or defamation (I'm not ...
- 210k
2
votes
Is it legal to describe something exactly as "cheese" without asterisks or other qualification if it doesn't contain any dairy?
This question is currently tagged united-kingdom.
In British English the words "cheese" or "curd" simply refer to different stages of a thickened or coagulated liquid.
While the ...
- 121
2
votes
Accepted
Is Google's claim of never targeting ads from gmail false advertising?
“We never use” means we don’t do it now
It’s different from “we have never used” and “we will never use”.
So long as Google don’t use the practice contemporaneously with making the statement, they are ...
- 197k
2
votes
Accepted
Are unmatched asterisks allowed in ads?
By not providing any material to support the asterisk, the firm placing the ad lost an intended opportunity to clarify what they meant by the word "free" and are now left in the same ...
- 194k
2
votes
Accepted
Fake video from saab
No.
There is no reason for anyone to believe that a country's Air Force would purchase a military jet fighter in reliance upon a comment made by the company in a promotional video intended for the ...
- 194k
2
votes
Easily pickable locks - false advertising to negligence?
I suspect major manufacturers would hesitate to make claims like "unpickable". What they are more likely to say is "never picked".
As for "high security", I think the ...
- 2,437
1
vote
Is customer entitled to the same car tested in the test drive or in the ad?
No way in heck you are going to enforce performance and get the car you test drove when you signed a contract for another car, but no way they can make you pay for the car you didn’t think you were ...
- 675
1
vote
Accepted
Is it legal to make false advertising claims but give the correct info in small print?
Hypo
A quick factual analysis: You don’t mistype 200 gigabytes to 2 terabytes. That needs a “mistyping” of 200 to 2 and the words “gigs” to “tera”. No typo, that’s obvious.
A reasonable person wouldn’...
- 3,875
Only top scored, non community-wiki answers of a minimum length are eligible