Ohio Administrative Code › Title 109:4 - Consumer Protection › Chapter 109:4-3 - Deceptive Acts or Trade Practices in Connection with Consumer Transactions › Section 109:4-3-12 - Price comparisons

Current through all regulations passed and filed through July 1, 2024
(A) Declaration of
			 policy
This rule is designed to define with reasonable specificity
				certain circumstances in which a supplier's acts or practices in advertising
				price comparisons are deceptive and therefore illegal. For purposes of this
				rule, price comparisons involve a comparison of the present or future price of
				the subject of a consumer transaction to a reference price, usually as an
				incentive for consumers to purchase. This rule deals only with out-of-store
				advertisements as defined in paragraph (B)(3) of this rule. The rule stems from
				the general principle, codified in division (B) of section   1345.02   of the
				Revised Code, that it is deceptive for any claimed savings, discount, bargain,
				or sale not to be genuine, for the prices which are the basis of such
				comparisons not to be bona fide, genuine prices, and for out-of-store
				advertisements which indicate price comparisons to create false expectations in
				the minds of consumers.
(B)
			 Definitions
(1) "Goods and services" means,
			 for the purposes of this rule, all items which may be the subject of consumer
			 transactions as defined in division (A) of section   1345.01   of the Revised
			 Code.
(2) "Meaningful reduction"
			 means a reduction from a reference price, which reduction is reasonably
			 significant when compared to the reference price as a percentage, or when
			 otherwise compared when the reference price is greater than one hundred
			 dollars.
(3) "Out-of-store
			 advertising" means any advertisement, message, or representation made by a
			 supplier outside of its interior premises. It includes but is not limited to
			 communications made via newspapers, television, radio, printed brochures,
			 leaflets, fliers, billboards, any online or digital
			 medium, or signs painted on or posted in windows.
(4) "Price comparison" or "comparison" means
			 any representation, however expressed, that a savings, reduction or discount
			 exists or will exist; provided, however, that language which does not
			 reasonably imply a comparison to identifiable prices or items does not express
			 a price comparison.
(5) "Reference
			 price" means a higher price to which a supplier compares another, lower price
			 for the purpose of indicating that a reduction in price exists or will
			 exist.
(6) "Regular price" has the
			 same meaning as in rule 109:4-3-04 of  the Administrative Code.
(7) "Trading area" means the geographical
			 area in which a supplier in the regular course of its business solicits
			 substantial numbers of customers. A trading area can be local, regional, or
			 national. In the case of a supplier which does business through branch outlets,
			 any branch outlet or group of outlets may have a trading area distinct from
			 that of the supplier as a whole or from other of the supplier's branch outlets.
			 The geographical reach of the out-of-store advertising of a supplier or of any
			 of its branches can serve as evidence of the extent of its trading
			 area.