(a) Unfair or deceptive acts or practices by an office supplier in
the conduct of office supply transactions in trade or commerce are
declared unlawful. (b) By way of illustration only and without limiting the scope of
subsection (a) of this Code section, the following practices by
office suppliers in the conduct of office supply transactions are
declared unlawful: (1) Passing off goods or services as those of another; (2) Falsely representing to any person that the office supplier is
the usual supplier of goods, services, or property purchased by
that person; (3) Falsely representing to any person that the goods, services,
or property sold, leased, rented, or shipped by the office
supplier are the same brand as that person usually uses; (4) Misrepresenting in any manner, including the use of a
confusingly similar name, the manufacturer, supplier, or seller of
the goods, services, or property; (5) Representing that the prices an office supplier charges are
less than a person usually pays for goods, services, or property,
unless the goods, services, or property compared are identical and
the representation is true; (6) Shipping or supplying an amount or quantity of goods,
services, or property to a person which is substantially greater
than the amount or quantity which the person actually orders; (7) Misrepresenting in any manner, including but not limited to
failure to disclose material facts regarding the value of, any
gift, prize, or award which will be given by an office supplier in
conjunction with any office supply transaction; (8) Falsely representing that there is an imminent price increase; (9) Substituting any brand or quality of goods, services, or
property for that actually ordered without prior approval of such
substitution from the person ordering; or (10)(A) Solicitation for inclusion in the listing of a telephone
classified advertising directory unless such solicitation form
has prominently printed therein at least one inch apart from any
other text on the form and in type size and boldness equal to or
greater than any other type size and boldness on the form the
words: "THIS IS NOT A BILL. THIS IS A SOLICITATION." (B) For the purposes of this paragraph, the term "telephone
classified advertising directory" refers to any telephone
classified advertising directory which is distributed to some or
all telephone subscribers in any area of the state and includes
such directories distributed by telephone service companies as
well as such directories distributed by other parties.
(c) An office supplier may not by contract, agreement, or otherwise
limit the operation of this part, notwithstanding any other
provision of law. |