50-903. Deceptive practices prohibited; bait selling; price representation; product representation; tie-in sales.
50-903
50-903. Deceptive practices prohibited; bait selling; price representation;product representation; tie-in sales.No person advertising, offering for sale or selling all orpart of a carcass or food plan shall engage in any misleading ordeceptive practices, including, but not limited to, any one ormore of the following:
(a) Bait Selling. (1) Disparaging or degrading any productadvertised or offered for sale by the seller, displaying any product ordepiction of a product to any buyer in order to induce the purchase ofanother product or representing that a product is for sale when therepresentation is used primarily to sell another product. Nothing in thissubsection (a)(1) shall be construed to prohibit the enhancement of salesof any product by the use of a gift.
(2) Substituting any product for that ordered by the buyer without thebuyer's written consent.
(3) Failing to have available a sufficient quantity of the productrepresented as being for sale to meet reasonable anticipated demands,unless the available amount is disclosed fully and conspicuously.
(b) Price Representation. (1) Using any price list or advertisementsubject to changes without notice unless so stated, and which containsprices other than the seller's current billing prices, unless changes aresubject to consumer's advance acceptance or rejection at or before the timeof order or delivery.
(2) Misrepresenting the amount of money that the buyer will save onpurchases of any products which are not of the same grade or quality.
(3) Failing to disclose fully and conspicuously in advertisement andinvoice in at least ten-pointtype any charge for cutting, wrapping, freezing, delivery or other services.
(4) Representing the price of any product to be offered for sale inunits larger than one pound in terms other than price per single pound. Nothing in paragraph (4) of this subsection (b) shall be construed toprevent the price of such units from also being represented by individualserving, by fluid measure or by other meaningful description.
(c) Product Representation. (1) Misrepresenting the cut, grade,brand or trade name, or weight or measure of any product.
(2) Using the abbreviation "U.S." in describing a product not graded bythe United States department of agriculture, except that a product may bedescribed as "U.S. Inspected" when true.
(3) Referring to a quality grade other than the United Statesdepartment of agriculture quality grade, unless the grade name is preceded by theseller's name in type at least as large and conspicuous as the grade name.
(4) Misrepresenting a product through the use of any term similar to agovernment grade.
(5) Failing to disclose in uniform ten-point type, when a yield grade isadvertised, a definition of the yield grade in the following terms:
Yield Grade 1 - Extra lean
Yield Grade 2 - Lean
Yield Grade 3 - Average waste
Yield Grade 4 - Wasty
Yield Grade 5 - Exceptionally wasty
(6) Comparing quality to a United States department of agriculture yieldgrade, unless it is fully and conspicuously disclosed that the quality is not aU.S.D.A. yield grade but only an opinion.
(7) Advertising or offering for sale carcasses, sides or primal cuts assuch, while including disproportionate numbers or amounts of less expensivecomponents of those cuts, or offering them in tandem with less expensivecomponents from other carcasses, sides or primal cut parts.
(8) Failing to disclose fully and conspicuously the correct governmentgrade for any product if the product is represented as having been graded.
(9) Failing to disclose fully and conspicuously that the yield ofconsumable meat from any carcass or part of a carcass will be less than theweight of the carcass or part of the carcass. The seller shall, for eachcarcass or part of carcass advertised, use separately and distinctly, in atleast ten-point type, the following disclosure: "Sold gross weightsubject to trim loss."
(10) Misrepresenting the amount or proportion of retail cuts that acarcass or part of carcass will yield.
(11) Failing to disclose fully and conspicuously whether a quarter of acarcass is the front or hind quarter, and quarters, sides or halves mustconsist of only anatomically natural proportions of cuts from front or hind quarters.
(12) Representing any part of a carcass as a "half" or "side" unless itconsists exclusively of a front and hind quarter. Both quarters must befrom the same side of the same animal unless the seller discloses fully andconspicuously that they are or may be from different sides or different animals, asthe case may be. Any section advertised and offered for sale either as anindividual unit or as an inclusion with the purchase of a quarter, side orhalf must be described and called by its commonly known name. Each quartershall be of the same grade or quality as the other quarter comprising thehalf or side and the seller shall advise the buyer of the weight of eachquarter prior to sale. In selling quarters individually or as part of ahalf or side, if actual weights are not known or cannot be determined priorto sale, approximate weights may be used if: (A) The buyer is informed thatthe weights are approximate; (B) the advertised weight ranges do not covera spread of more than 10%; (C) the difference between advertised and saleweights does not exceed 5%; and (D) the seller agrees with the buyer, inwriting, to make a cash refund or grant a credit on delivery for thedifference between actual weight and the approximate weight on which the sale was made.
(13) Using the words "bundle," "sample order" or words ofsimilar import to describe a quantity of meat or poultry unless the selleritemizes each type of cut and the weight of each type of cut which the buyerwill receive.
(14) Advertising or offering a free, bonus or extra product or servicecombined with or conditioned on the purchase of any other product orservice unless the additional product or service is accurately described,including, whenever applicable, grade, net weight or measure, type andbrand or trade name. The words "free," "bonus" or other words of similarimport shall not be used in any advertisement unless the advertisementclearly and conspicuously sets forth the total price or amount which mustbe purchased to entitle the buyer to the additional product or service.
(15) Misrepresenting the breed, origin or diet of slaughtered animals orparts of slaughtered animals offered for sale. Sellers making claims as tobreed, origin or diet shall have written records available to substantiate the claims.
(d) Requiring the purchase of a food freezer or other food storage refrigerationunit from the seller or any specified supplier as a prerequisite to, ora necessary part of, any food plan.
History: L. 1984, ch. 218, § 3; July 1.