(A) Any person who, with intent to sell or in anywise dispose of merchandise, securities, service, or anything offered by such person, directly or indirectly, to the public for sale or distribution, or with intent to increase their consumption, or to induce the public in any manner to enter into any related obligation or to acquire title or any interest, makes, publishes, disseminates, circulates, or places before the public, or causes, directly or indirectly, to be made, published, disseminated, circulated, or placed before the public, in a newspaper or other publication, or in the form of a book, notice, handbill, poster, blueprint, map, tag, bill, label, circular, pamphlet, or letter or in any other way, an advertisement of any sort regarding merchandise, securities, service, land, lot, or anything so offered to the public, which advertisement contains any promise, assertion, representation, or statement of fact that is untrue, deceptive, or misleading, or uses any other method, device, or practice which is fraudulent, deceptive, or misleading to induce the public to enter into any obligation, shall be punished pursuant to § 132.99.
(B) The terms UNTRUE, DECEPTIVE, and MISLEADING, as used in this section, shall be construed as including:
(1) The advertising in any manner by any person of any goods, wares, or merchandise as bankrupt stock, receiver’s stock, or trustee’s stock, or any sale as an insurance, fire-damaged, water-damaged, or going-out-of business sale, or any other sale generally known as a distress sale, if such stock contains any goods, wares, or merchandise put in stock subsequent to the date of the purchase by such advertiser of such stock, and if such advertisement of any such stock fails to set forth the fact that such stock contains other goods, wares, or merchandise put in stock, subsequent to the date of the purchase by such advertiser of such stock, in type as large as the type used in any other part of such advertisement, including the caption, it shall be a violation of this section; and
(2) The use of any writing or document which appears to be but is not in fact a negotiable check, negotiable draft, or other negotiable instrument, notwithstanding the fact that its nonnegotiability is indicated on the writing or document.
(1998 Code, § 38-83) Penalty, see § 132.99
Statutory reference:
Similar provisions, see VA Code § 18.2-216