Constitutional Infringement of Commercial Speech - Assignment Example

The justification may be that though the present law grants the government power to regulate advertisement under certain conditions as per Central Hudson v. Public Service Commission and Board of Trustees of the State University of New York v. Fox, the conditions remain unfulfilled. In the present case, the question is whether the government will have the power to regulate liquor advertising in the state of Washington. The conditions which will allow the government to do so would be the presence of substantial state interest, which is there in the present case in the form of a need to stop under-aged drinking. The second condition is whether the regulation directly advances the interest, which it doesn’t as no proof banning advertisements will stop under-aged drinking particularly. The third condition is that the regulation is not unreasonably more extensive than what is necessary, which it is, as there is no evidence that it will stop underage drinking in particular and will surely affect the liquor business.

Case problem-2
The sales representative is not correct in her assertion, as it is material whether the commercial speech is true or false. The reason is that commercial speech is not protected under, any law, if it’s false and misleading, as in the present case.

Certain statutes and Federal Trade Commission Rules prohibit it, in addition to the case laws which act as a precedent to support the cause. If the national company is taken as a competitor to my present online business, a civil suit can be brought against the company for publishing false or misleading descriptions of its goods. In addition to the Lanham Act, the state consumer protection laws also protect consumers against false and misleading advertisements given by a business. Finally, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) also prohibits it. The FTC can invoke its powers, about false and misleading advertisements, if the communication is an advertisement, the advertisement affects interstate commerce and the advertisement is false or deceptive.
In addition to the remedies offered by the courts under the Lanham and consumer protection laws in the form of injunctions and fines, the FTC has its own set of remedies to take care of the issue. The FTC publishes specific guidelines for advertising in an entire industry. The FTC has a voluntary compliance remedy, which will seek a voluntary agreement from the advertiser to terminate a campaign and to repeat the same, without any sort of determination. Moreover, the FTC can make consent agreements with the advertisers, issue a litigated order in case the advertiser refuses to sign the consent order, force the advertiser to prove the claims made in an advertisement by Substantiation, and move to court for an order of injunction.

Case Problem-3
The consumer organization is correct in its assertion, as the conditions laid down by FTC for an ad to be taken as false and deceptive are fulfilled. In the present case, there is a representation that will mislead the consumer. The exercise club states that clients of the club lose 30 to 50 pounds in two months, yet, they didn’t make their claim based on substantial evidence. When they hired slim attractive men and women, they hid the reality to promote their business, which is uncertain. Lastly, they gave the disclaimer to protect themselves from the liability of the representation. This is a carefully planned way to mislead the customers.
The second condition to see whether the consumer acting reasonably would be misled is also fulfilled. It’s hard to know the difference between paid actors hired to promote business and original people unless the real fact is known to the customers. Moreover, disclaimers similar to the one in the present case are not taken into consideration by FTC.
The third condition of FTC is also satisfied. The representation made by the exercise club is material. FTC itself states that the claims relating to attributes of service are material. People will determine whether to go to this particular club or not by looking at the results achieved and they will be cheated, as it is misrepresented. This would allow to FTC to enforce the remedies available to deal with such cases.