Session of 2000
SENATE BILL No. 614 By Senator Goodwin 2-9

9 AN ACT concerning the consumer protection act; relating to deceptive
10 use of names of municipalities in printed advertisements; amending
11 K.S.A. 50-626 and repealing the existing section.
12
13 Be it enacted by the Legislature of the State of Kansas:
14 Section 1. K.S.A. 50-626 is hereby amended to read as follows: 50-
15 626. (a) No supplier shall engage in any deceptive act or practice in con-
16 nection with a consumer transaction.
17 (b) Deceptive acts and practices include, but are not limited to, the
18 following, each of which is hereby declared to be a violation of this act,
19 whether or not any consumer has in fact been misled:
20 (1) Representations made knowingly or with reason to know that:
21 (A) Property or services have sponsorship, approval, accessories,
22 characteristics, ingredients, uses, benefits or quantities that they do not
23 have;
24 (B) the supplier has a sponsorship, approval, status, affiliation or con-
25 nection that the supplier does not have;
26 (C) property is original or new, if such property has been deterio-
27 rated, altered, reconditioned, repossessed or is second-hand or otherwise
28 used to an extent that is materially different from the representation;
29 (D) property or services are of particular standard, quality, grade,
30 style or model, if they are of another which differs materially from the
31 representation;
32 (E) the consumer will receive a rebate, discount or other benefit as
33 an inducement for entering into a consumer transaction in return for
34 giving the supplier the names of prospective consumers or otherwise
35 helping the supplier to enter into other consumer transactions, if receipt
36 of benefit is contingent on an event occurring after the consumer enters
37 into the transaction;
38 (F) property or services has uses, benefits or characteristics unless
39 the supplier relied upon and possesses a reasonable basis for making such
40 representation; or
41 (G) use, benefit or characteristic of property or services has been
42 proven or otherwise substantiated unless the supplier relied upon and
43 possesses the type and amount of proof or substantiation represented to

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1 exist;
2 (2) the willful use, in any oral or written representation, of exagger-
3 ation, falsehood, innuendo or ambiguity as to a material fact;
4 (3) the willful failure to state a material fact, or the willful conceal-
5 ment, suppression or omission of a material fact;
6 (4) disparaging the property, services or business of another by mak-
7 ing, knowingly or with reason to know, false or misleading representations
8 of material facts;
9 (5) offering property or services without intent to sell them;
10 (6) offering property or services without intent to supply reasonable,
11 expectable public demand, unless the offer discloses the limitation;
12 (7) making false or misleading representations, knowingly or with rea-
13 son to know, of fact concerning the reason for, existence of or amounts
14 of price reductions, or the price in comparison to prices of competitors
15 or one's own price at a past or future time;
16 (8) falsely stating, knowingly or with reason to know, that a consumer
17 transaction involves consumer rights, remedies or obligations;
18 (9) falsely stating, knowingly or with reason to know, that services,
19 replacements or repairs are needed;
20 (10) falsely stating, knowingly or with reason to know, the reasons for
21 offering or supplying property or services at sale or discount prices; ~~and~~
22 (11) sending or delivering a solicitation for goods or services which
23 could reasonably be interpreted or construed as a bill, invoice or state-
24 ment of account due, unless:
25 (A) Such solicitation contains the following notice, on its face, in con-
26 spicuous and legible type in contrast by typography, layout or color with
27 other printing on its face:
28 "THIS IS A SOLICITATION FOR THE PURCHASE OF GOODS
29 OR SERVICES AND NOT A BILL, INVOICE OR STATEMENT OF
30 ACCOUNT DUE. YOU ARE UNDER NO OBLIGATION TO MAKE
31 ANY PAYMENTS UNLESS YOU ACCEPT THIS OFFER"; and
32 (B) such solicitation, if made by any classified telephone directory
33 service not affiliated with a local telephone service in the area of service,
34 contains the following notice, on its face, in a prominent and conspicuous
35 manner:
36 "__________________________ IS NOT AFFILIATED WITH
37 (name of telephone directory service)
38 ANY LOCAL TELEPHONE COMPANY".; and
39 (12) using, in any printed advertisement, an assumed or fictitious
40 name for the conduct of such person's business that includes the name of
41 any municipality in this state in such a manner as to suggest that such
42 person's business is located in such municipality unless: (A) Such person's
43 business is, in fact, located in such municipality; or (B) such person in-

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1 cludes in any such printed advertisement the complete street address of
2 the location from which such person's business is actually conducted, in-
3 cluding the city or town and, if located outside of Kansas, the state in
4 which such person's business is located. The provisions of this subsection
5 shall not apply to the use of any trademark or service mark registered
6 under the laws of this state or under federal law; any such name that,
7 when applied to the goods or services of such person's business, is merely
8 descriptive of them; or any such name that is merely a surname. Nothing
9 in this subsection shall be construed to impose any liability on any pub-
10 lisher that relies on the written assurances of a person placing such
11 printed advertisement that such person has authority to use any such
12 assumed or fictitious name.
13 Sec. 2. K.S.A. 50-626 is hereby repealed.
14 Sec. 3. This act shall take effect and be in force from and after its
15 publication in the statute book.