CHAPTER 167 SENATE BILL No. 470 An Act concerning the consumer protection act; relating to deceptive use of name of
municipality, community or region in printed advertisements; amending K.S.A. 50-626
and repealing the existing section.
Be it enacted by the Legislature of the State of Kansas:

      Section  1. K.S.A. 50-626 is hereby amended to read as follows: 50-
626. (a) No supplier shall engage in any deceptive act or practice in con-
nection with a consumer transaction.

      (b) Deceptive acts and practices include, but are not limited to, the
following, each of which is hereby declared to be a violation of this act,
whether or not any consumer has in fact been misled:

      (1) Representations made knowingly or with reason to know that:

      (A) Property or services have sponsorship, approval, accessories,
characteristics, ingredients, uses, benefits or quantities that they do not
have;

      (B) the supplier has a sponsorship, approval, status, affiliation or con-
nection that the supplier does not have;

      (C) property is original or new, if such property has been deterio-
rated, altered, reconditioned, repossessed or is second-hand or otherwise
used to an extent that is materially different from the representation;

      (D) property or services are of particular standard, quality, grade,
style or model, if they are of another which differs materially from the
representation;

      (E) the consumer will receive a rebate, discount or other benefit as
an inducement for entering into a consumer transaction in return for
giving the supplier the names of prospective consumers or otherwise
helping the supplier to enter into other consumer transactions, if receipt
of benefit is contingent on an event occurring after the consumer enters
into the transaction;

      (F) property or services has uses, benefits or characteristics unless
the supplier relied upon and possesses a reasonable basis for making such
representation; or

      (G) use, benefit or characteristic of property or services has been
proven or otherwise substantiated unless the supplier relied upon and
possesses the type and amount of proof or substantiation represented to
exist;

      (2) the willful use, in any oral or written representation, of exagger-
ation, falsehood, innuendo or ambiguity as to a material fact;

      (3) the willful failure to state a material fact, or the willful conceal-
ment, suppression or omission of a material fact;

      (4) disparaging the property, services or business of another by mak-
ing, knowingly or with reason to know, false or misleading representations
of material facts;

      (5) offering property or services without intent to sell them;

      (6) offering property or services without intent to supply reasonable,
expectable public demand, unless the offer discloses the limitation;

      (7) making false or misleading representations, knowingly or with rea-
son to know, of fact concerning the reason for, existence of or amounts
of price reductions, or the price in comparison to prices of competitors
or one's own price at a past or future time;

      (8) falsely stating, knowingly or with reason to know, that a consumer
transaction involves consumer rights, remedies or obligations;

      (9) falsely stating, knowingly or with reason to know, that services,
replacements or repairs are needed;

      (10) falsely stating, knowingly or with reason to know, the reasons for
offering or supplying property or services at sale or discount prices; and

      (11) sending or delivering a solicitation for goods or services which
could reasonably be interpreted or construed as a bill, invoice or state-
ment of account due, unless:

      (A) Such solicitation contains the following notice, on its face, in con-
spicuous and legible type in contrast by typography, layout or color with
other printing on its face:

      ``THIS IS A SOLICITATION FOR THE PURCHASE OF GOODS
OR SERVICES AND NOT A BILL, INVOICE OR STATEMENT OF
ACCOUNT DUE. YOU ARE UNDER NO OBLIGATION TO MAKE
ANY PAYMENTS UNLESS YOU ACCEPT THIS OFFER''; and

      (B) such solicitation, if made by any classified telephone directory
service not affiliated with a local telephone service in the area of service,
contains the following notice, on its face, in a prominent and conspicuous
manner:

      ``

---

IS NOT AFFILIATED WITH

       (name of telephone directory service)

ANY LOCAL TELEPHONE COMPANY''.; and

      (12) using, in any printed advertisement, an assumed or fictitious
name for the conduct of such person's business that includes the name of
any municipality, community or region or other description of the mu-
nicipality, community or region in this state in such a manner as to suggest
that such person's business is located in such municipality, community or
region unless: (A) Such person's business is, in fact, located in such mu-
nicipality, community or region; or (B) such person includes in any such
printed advertisement the complete street and city address of the location
from which such person's business is actually conducted. If located outside
of Kansas, the state in which such person's business is located also shall
be included. The provisions of this subsection shall not apply to the use
of any trademark or service mark registered under the laws of this state
or under federal law; any such name that, when applied to the goods or
services of such person's business, is merely descriptive of them; or any
such name that is merely a surname. Nothing in this subsection shall be
construed to impose any liability on any publisher when such publisher
had no knowledge the business was not, in fact, located in such munici-
pality, community or region.

 Sec.  2. K.S.A. 50-626 is hereby repealed.
 Sec.  3. This act shall take effect and be in force from and after its
publication in the statute book.

Approved May 16, 2000.
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