La. Admin. Code tit. 16 § III-507

Current through Register Vol. 50, No. 11, November 20, 2024

Section III-507 - Bait Advertising

A. Bait advertising is any representation or offer to sell any goods or services in any manner or by any means of communication, which representation has the effect of luring consumers to the location of the goods or services represented, or which induces consumers to contact the vendor or any of his agents, representatives or employees for the purpose of showing, demonstrating or selling to the consumer the goods or services represented, or where, at the time of any previously arranged meeting, any of the following acts or practices are engaged in by the vendor, his agents, representatives, or employees:

1. the refusal to show, demonstrate, or sell the goods or services represented in accordance with the terms of representation;

2. the disparagement by acts or words of the represented goods or services or the disparagement of the guarantee, credit terms, availability of service, repairs or parts, or in any other respect, in connection with it;

3. the failure to have available at all outlets listed in the representation a sufficient quantity of the goods or services to meet reasonably anticipated demands, unless the representation clearly and adequately discloses that supply is limited and/or the goods or services are available only at designated outlets;

4. the refusal to take orders for the represented goods or services to be delivered within a reasonable period of time;

5. the showing or demonstrating of goods or services which are defective, unusable or impractical for the purpose represented or implied in the representation;

6. use of a sales plan or method of compensation for salesmen or penalizing salesmen, to prevent or discourage them from selling the represented goods or services;

7. attempt, through the use of the acts or practices enumerated in Paragraphs 1-6 above, or by any other scheme, to switch consumers from buying the goods or services represented in order to sell something else at a higher price or on a basis more advantageous to the vendor.

B. Whoever engages in bait advertising violates R.S. 51:1405(A), prohibiting, inter alia, unfair or deceptive trade practices; provided further that this rule shall not operate as an exclusive definition of prohibited conduct in the area of trade and commerce, to which it applies or in any other area of trade and commerce, and shall not operate as a defense to other activity otherwise deemed to be an unfair method of competition or an unfair or deceptive act or practices in trade and commerce by this state, the Federal Trade Commission or by the courts of this state or of the United States.

C. If any part of this rule is judicially decreed to be invalid for any reason, the remainder of the rule shall continue in full force and effect, and to this end this rule is declared to be severable.

D. All rules and regulations or parts thereof in conflict herewith are hereby repealed.

La. Admin. Code tit. 16, § III-507

Adopted by the Office of the Governor, Office of Consumer Protection, (April 1974), promulgated by the Department of Justice, Consumer Protection Section, LR 21:952 (September 1995).

AUTHORITY NOTE: Promulgated in accordance with R.S. 51:1401 et seq.