19.162.040 - Advertisement of services.

Advertisement of services.

An information provider that does business in Washington shall comply with the following provisions in its advertisement of information delivery services:

     (1) Advertisements for information delivery services that are broadcast by radio or television, contained in home videos, or that appear on movie screens must include a voice-over announcement that is clearly audible and articulates the price of the service provided. The announcement must be made at a volume equal to that used to announce the telephone number, spoken in a normal cadence, and in plain English or the language used in the advertisement.

     (2) Advertisements for information delivery services that are broadcast by television, contained in home videos, or that appear on movie screens must include, in clearly visible letters and numbers, the cost of calling the advertised number. This visual disclosure of the cost of the call must be displayed adjacent to the number to be called whenever the number is shown in the advertisement, and the lettering of the visual disclosure of the cost must be in the same size and typeface as that of the number to be called.

     (3)(a) Except as otherwise provided in (b) of this subsection, advertisements for information delivery services that appear in print must include, in clearly visible letters and numbers, the cost of calling the advertised number. The printed disclosure of the cost of the call must be displayed adjacent to the number to be called wherever the number is shown in the advertisement.

     (b) In telephone directory yellow page display advertising and in printed materials published not more than three times a year, instead of disclosing the cost of the service, advertisements for information delivery services, shall include the conspicuous disclosure that the call is a pay-per-call service.

     (4) The advertised price or cost of the information delivery service must include:

     (a) Any per minute charge;

     (b) Any flat rate charge; and

     (c) Any minimum charge.

[1991 c 191 § 4.]