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Deceptive Advertising
Deceptive advertising, also known as false advertising, refers to a manufacturer’s use of confusing, misleading, or blatantly untrue statements when promoting a product. Advertising law will protect consumers from deceptive advertising through the enforcement of specific legislation. Advertising law and consumer law have basically the same function: to promote truth in labeling.
Truth in labeling means that all pertinent information that a consumer should reasonably be aware of should be printed on the label of the product. This will ensure that consumers are protected, and know exactly what they are buying. This limits the level of manipulation by manufacturers and advertisers.
There are several different methods for attempting to deceive consumers that are not permitted under advertising law. One way is through hidden fees or the use of surcharges. This means that a company will charge extra fees beyond the advertised price for a certain product or service. This is very common in mobile phone contracts and air travel.
Oftentimes, the company will try to protect themselves by disclosing the extra fees in the “fine print” of the contract. Most consumers will be unaware of these charges and overlook them when signing contracts. Advertising law mandates that the language of a contract must not be so confusing that it prevents a consumer from being aware of them. Oftentimes, especially in mobile phone contracts, activation fees will be included. Advertising law will permit these charges as long as they are disclosed to the consumer.
Another method of deceptive advertising occurs when “going out of business sales” actually charge customers more for products that had already been marked down. According to consumer law, this is an unfair practice because it takes advantage of and misleads the customer. By advertising that the company is going out of business and “everything must go” this tells the customer that the prices will be marked down. However, this is not always the case. A customer may actually pay a higher price than normal during a going out of business sale.
Advertising law also recognizes the manipulation of standards as a deception under consumer law. This means that a company will begin to change something, such as a unit of measurement, to mean something different from how it is normally understood. This will allow companies to charge more for their services, but is a violation of rights according to consumer law.
Undefined terms is also considered a violation under consumer law. This will occur when manufacturers are very vague in their terms. They may be using terms that are not legally accepted and basically have little meaning.
Types of deception
Photo retouching
Often used in cosmetic and weight loss commercials, these adverts portray false and unobtainable results to the consumer and give a false impression of the product’s true capabilities. If retouching is not discovered or fixed, a company can be at a competitive advantage with consumers purchasing their seemingly more effective product, thus leaving competitors at a loss.
Advertisers for weight loss products may also employ athletes who are recovering from injuries for “before and after” demonstrations.
Omitting information
An ad may omit or skim over important information. The ad’s claims may be technically true, but the ad does not include information that a reasonable person would consider relevant. For example, TV advertisements for prescription drugs may technically fulfil a regulatory requirement by displaying side-effects in a small font at the end of the ad, or have a “speed-talker” list them. This practice was prevalent in the United States in the recent past.
Hidden fees and surcharges
Hidden fees can be a way for companies to trick the unwary consumer into paying excess fees (for example tax, shipping fees, insurance etc.) on a product that was advertised at a specific price as a way to increase profit without raising the price on the actual item.
A common form of hidden fees and surcharges is “fine print” in advertising. Another way to hide fees that is commonly used is to not include “shipping fees” into the price of goods online. This makes an item look cheaper than it is once the shipping cost is added. Many hotels charge mandatory “resort fees” that are not typically included in the advertised base price of the room.
Manipulation of measurement units and standards
Manipulation of measurement units and standards can be described as a seller deceiving customers by informing them with facts that either are not true or are using a standard or standards that wouldn’t be widely used or understood which results in the customer being misinformed or confused.
Fillers and oversized packaging
Some products are sold with fillers, which increase the legal weight of the product with something that costs the producer very little compared to what the consumer thinks that he or she is buying. Food is an example of this, where meat is injected with broth or even brine (up to 15%), or TV dinners are filled with gravy or other sauce instead of meat. Malt and ham have been used as filler in peanut butter. There are also non-meat fillers which may look starchy in their makeup; they are high in carbohydrate and low in nutritional value. One example is known as a cereal binder and usually contains some combination of flours and oatmeal.
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