The Reverend C asked:


Who has to file the suit? Is it a state or federal matter? What does false advertising mean exactly.

To make it simpler, if a business advertises itself as a scientific museum but doesn’t offer any science or any authentic, museum-like exhibits, can that be considered false advertising.

Katherine

No Responses to “What are the laws regarding false advertising?”

1. regerugged on August 8th, 2010 3:17 pm

   Your example is not the best. Museums are free, so if you follow the ad and go to the museum, you have not lost anything, so you have nothing to sue for. False advertising is a civil tort. For example, a car dealer advertises a Mustang for sale at $10,000. You go there and the salesman leads you to all of the other vehicles for sale. You find out that they never did have a $10,000 Mustang, so you sue the dealer in state court to force him to get you the Mustang. In the US, you have to have a case worth more than $75,000 to sue in federal court.

2. lcmcpa on August 11th, 2010 10:49 pm

   Regerugged tell us how to get into museums free. I’d love to stop paying.

   Contact your state division of consumer affairs. You can file a complaint with them. It is not something you will have to sue for as an individual.

   Some things are federal matters but your museum would be a state matter.

3. volleyballchick on August 15th, 2010 9:49 am

   It depends upon why one is doing that advertising.

   “Science” is a very broad term. Economics is a form of science, as is politics (believe it or not).

   False advertising is basically advertising knowingly false info/items for the specific reason to make money off of the false information. As to who is responsible for prosecuting the “false advertising” entirely rests upon how the advertising is false. If it is within a store advertising one price, but selling for another, that is under the federal government (weights and measures). But if it is a matter of advertising an item at a special price, and then not having the item in stock, or not enough on hand to reasonably support the escalated demand for the item due to the sale, that is more of a state thing.

   Basically, to give a more thorough answer, you need to share more information.

4. pappyld04 on August 16th, 2010 7:58 am

   Everything you see around you can be called scientific-related. The contents of your pockets (all that junk) was made through a scientific process of some form or another. Most every object around you is made from a raw material of some type! You really need to get away from the idea of suing people for every little thing that you don’t like about your world!! Are you the guy who sued McDonald’s cause he doesn’t know how to drink coffee? NO FREE RIDES. If you don’t like the place then don’t go there!!!!! Someone has taken the time out of their lives to make sure that these items were preserved for the future generations.

5. Dr. Luv on August 17th, 2010 7:51 pm

   Generally false advertisements refer to commercial endevours and a museum would probably not fall under this. It constitutes advertising a service or item that the seller knows the advertisement mischaracterizes.

   Here with the museum first you would have to purchase a ticket in good faith….here you would not have good faith because you know it is not a scientific museum…but to others it may be….but to be a person who can bring suit you must show that you entered the museum based on the advertisement…the advertisement was false…and you were harmed…here your harm is the ticket price…and it can be argued that the museum does teach a point of view on science….so a false advertisement claim would not be the way to go….too shaky.

   Now as for the museum if it is state owned or run then you could possibly bring an establishment clause claim…one of the few times a citizen can sue a government is for a violation of the establishment clause….if you can show that the museum is state owned and only teaches from the perspective of one religion…here christian dogma about creationalism and does not give other religions and theorys an audience in the museum it could be an establishment violation…in this case the museum would have to admit other theories of origin or disband the theme of creationalism all together…but if it is private owned then it is untouchable on this claim.