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H.B. 457

This document includes House Floor Amendments incorporated into the bill on Mon, Mar 9, 2009 at 3:03 PM by jeyring. -->              1     

TRUTH IN MUSIC

             2     
2009 GENERAL SESSION

             3     
STATE OF UTAH

             4     
Chief Sponsor: Gregory H. Hughes

             5     
Senate Sponsor: Howard A. Stephenson

             6     
             7      LONG TITLE
             8      General Description:
             9          This bill prohibits certain deceptive advertising concerning a live musical performance.
             10      Highlighted Provisions:
             11          This bill:
             12          .    defines terms;
             13          .    prohibits the use of the name of a recording group to advertise the performance of a
             14      performing group if it would be false, deceptive, or otherwise misleading because it
             15      suggests an affiliation with the recording group;
             16          .    provides exceptions;
             17          .    provides for enforcement of a violation; and
             18          .    makes technical changes.
             19      Monies Appropriated in this Bill:
             20          None
             21      Other Special Clauses:
             22          None
             23      Utah Code Sections Affected:
             24      AMENDS:
             25          13-11a-2, as enacted by Laws of Utah 1989, Chapter 205
             26          13-11a-3, as last amended by Laws of Utah 2007, Chapters 138 and 306
             27      ENACTS:


             28          13-11a-6, Utah Code Annotated 1953
             29     
             30      Be it enacted by the Legislature of the state of Utah:
             31          Section 1. Section 13-11a-2 is amended to read:
             32           13-11a-2. Definitions.
             33          As used in this chapter:
             34          (1) "Advertisement" means any written, oral, or graphic statement or representation
             35      made by a supplier in connection with the solicitation of business. It includes, but is not
             36      limited to, communication by noncable television systems, radio, printed brochures,
             37      newspapers, leaflets, flyers, circulars, billboards, banners, or signs. It does not include any
             38      oral, in person, representation made by a sales representative to a prospective purchaser.
             39          (2) To "clearly and conspicuously disclose" means:
             40          (a) in the print media:
             41          (i) to state in typeface that is sufficiently bold to be obviously seen;
             42          (ii) to state in type size of at least 10 point type for a 14" x 23" document, and, in larger
             43      documents, of a type size of proportionately the same size; and
             44          (iii) to place in the text so as to be obviously seen;
             45          (b) in radio advertising, to verbally state in the same volume as that used in the
             46      advertisement;
             47          (c) in television advertising, the method for print media or radio advertising is
             48      acceptable unless contrary to other governing laws.
             49          (3) "Generic good" means a product which is offered for sale under its common
             50      descriptive name rather than under a trademark, trade name, brand name, house brand, or other
             51      distinguishing appellation.
             52          (4) "Goods and services" means all items which may be the subject of a sales
             53      transaction.
             54          (5) "Nondiscounted price" means a price at which the goods or services are offered at
             55      the time of the price assessment without a temporary store reduction in price.
             56          (6) "Performing group" means a vocal or instrumental group that performs live music
             57      for a paying audience.
             58          [(6)] (7) "Person" means an individual, including a consumer, corporation,


             59      government, or governmental subdivision or agency, business trust, estate, trust, partnership,
             60      unincorporated association, two or more of any of the foregoing having a joint or common
             61      interest, or any other legal or commercial entity.
             62          [(7)] (8) "Price assessment" means the determination of the prices underlying a price
             63      comparison.
             64          [(8)] (9) "Price assessor" means a firm or individual that determines the prices,
             65      including the reference prices, underlying the price comparison, or who makes the price
             66      comparison.
             67          [(9)] (10) "Price comparison" means any express representation that a specific savings,
             68      reduction, or discount exists or will exist between the supplier's advertised price and another
             69      specific price. A representation which does not reasonably imply a comparison to identifiable
             70      prices or items does not express a price comparison. Language constituting mere sales
             71      "puffing" is not prohibited by this chapter.
             72          [(10)] (11) "Product area" means the geographical area in which the prospective
             73      purchasers to whom the advertisement is aimed could reasonably be expected to seek the goods
             74      or services in question.
             75          (12) "Recording group" means a vocal or instrumental group at least one of the
             76      members of which has released a commercial sound recording under the group's name, if the
             77      member has a legal right to use of the group's name.
             78          [(11)] (13) "Reference price" means a higher price to which a supplier compares a
             79      lower price to indicate that a reduction in price exists or will exist.
             80          [(12)] (14) "Regular price" means the price at which a supplier has recently offered the
             81      goods or services for sale in good faith in the regular course of business. Every price
             82      represented in an advertisement is considered a regular price unless it is specifically
             83      represented as a price other than a regular price, such as a discount price or a manufacturer's
             84      suggested price. It is prima facie evidence that a price is other than a regular price when it was
             85      not offered as the nondiscount price of the goods or services for the 15 days immediately
             86      preceding an advertisement of the price, and the price change during the 15 day period was not
             87      due to price changes inherent in the pricing of seasonal or perishable goods, due to changes in
             88      cost of the goods or services to the supplier, or due to pricing changes made to match a
             89      competitor's price.


             90          [(13)] (15) "Sales transaction" means a sale, lease, assignment, award by chance, or
             91      other written or oral transfer or disposition of goods, services, or other property, both tangible
             92      and intangible (except securities and insurance), to a person or business, or a solicitation or
             93      offer by a supplier with respect to any of these transfers or dispositions. It includes any offer or
             94      solicitation, any agreement, and any performance of an agreement with respect to any of these
             95      transfers or dispositions.
             96          (16) "Sound recording" means a work resulting from the fixation on a material object,
             97      such as a disk, tape, or phono-record, of musical or instrumental sounds.
             98          [(14)] (17) "Supplier" means a seller, lessor, assignor, offeror, broker, or other person
             99      who regularly solicits, engages in, or enforces sales transactions, whether or not he deals
             100      directly with the purchaser.
             101          Section 2. Section 13-11a-3 is amended to read:
             102           13-11a-3. Deceptive trade practices enumerated -- Records to be kept -- Defenses.
             103          (1) Deceptive trade practices occur when, in the course of a person's business,
             104      vocation, or occupation that person:
             105          (a) passes off goods or services as those of another;
             106          (b) causes likelihood of confusion or of misunderstanding as to the source,
             107      sponsorship, approval, or certification of goods or services;
             108          (c) causes likelihood of confusion or of misunderstanding as to affiliation, connection,
             109      association with, or certification by another;
             110          (d) uses deceptive representations or designations of geographic origin in connection
             111      with goods or services;
             112          (e) represents that goods or services have sponsorship, approval, characteristics,
             113      ingredients, uses, benefits, or qualities that they do not have or that a person has a sponsorship,
             114      approval, status, affiliation, or connection that the person does not have;
             115          (f) represents that goods are original or new if they are deteriorated, altered,
             116      reconditioned, reclaimed, used, or second-hand;
             117          (g) represents that goods or services are of a particular standard, quality, or grade, or
             118      that goods are of a particular style or model, if they are of another;
             119          (h) disparages the goods, services, or business of another by false or misleading
             120      representation of fact;


             121          (i) advertises goods or services or the price of goods and services with intent not to sell
             122      them as advertised;
             123          (j) advertises goods or services with intent not to supply a reasonable expectable public
             124      demand, unless:
             125          (i) the advertisement clearly and conspicuously discloses a limitation of quantity; or
             126          (ii) the person issues rainchecks for the advertised goods or services;
             127          (k) makes false or misleading statements of fact concerning the reasons for, existence
             128      of, or amounts of price reductions;
             129          (l) makes a comparison between the person's own sale or discount price and a
             130      competitor's nondiscounted price without clearly and conspicuously disclosing that fact;
             131          (m) without clearly and conspicuously disclosing the date of the price assessment
             132      makes a price comparison with the goods of another based upon a price assessment performed
             133      more than seven days prior to the date of the advertisement or uses in an advertisement the
             134      results of a price assessment performed more than seven days prior to the date of the
             135      advertisement without disclosing, in a print ad, the date of the price assessment, or in a radio or
             136      television ad, the time frame of the price assessment;
             137          (n) advertises or uses in a price assessment or comparison a price that is not that
             138      person's own unless this fact is:
             139          (i) clearly and conspicuously disclosed; and
             140          (ii) the representation of the price is accurate;
             141          (o) represents as independent an audit, accounting, price assessment, or comparison of
             142      prices of goods or services, when the audit, accounting, price assessment, or comparison is not
             143      independent;
             144          (p) represents, in an advertisement of a reduction from the supplier's own prices, that
             145      the reduction is from a regular price, when the former price is not a regular price as defined in
             146      Subsection 13-11a-2 [(12)](14);
             147          (q) advertises a price comparison or the result of a price assessment or comparison that
             148      uses, in any way, an identified competitor's price without clearly and conspicuously disclosing
             149      the identity of the price assessor and any relationship between the price assessor and the
             150      supplier;
             151          (r) makes a price comparison between a category of the supplier's goods and the same


             152      category of the goods of another, without randomly selecting the individual goods or services
             153      upon whose prices the comparison is based;
             154          (s) makes a comparison between similar but nonidentical goods or services unless the
             155      nonidentical goods or services are of essentially similar quality to the advertised goods or
             156      services or the dissimilar aspects are clearly and conspicuously disclosed in the advertisements;
             157      or
             158          (t) engages in any other conduct which similarly creates a likelihood of confusion or of
             159      misunderstanding.
             160          (2) (a) For purposes of Subsection (1)(i), if a specific advertised price will be in effect
             161      for less than one week from the advertisement date, the advertisement must clearly and
             162      conspicuously disclose the specific time period during which the price will be in effect.
             163          (b) For purposes of Subsection (1)(n), with respect to the price of a competitor, the
             164      price must be one at which the competitor offered the goods or services for sale in the product
             165      area at the time of the price assessment, and must not be an isolated price.
             166          (c) For purposes of Subsection (1)(o), an audit, accounting, price assessment, or
             167      comparison shall be independent if the price assessor randomly selects the goods to be
             168      compared, and the time and place of the comparison, and no agreement or understanding exists
             169      between the supplier and the price assessor that could cause the results of the assessment to be
             170      fraudulent or deceptive. The independence of an audit, accounting, or price comparison is not
             171      invalidated merely because the advertiser pays a fee for the audit, accounting, or price
             172      comparison, but is invalidated if the audit, accounting, or price comparison is done by a full or
             173      part-time employee of the advertiser.
             174          (d) Examples of a disclosure that complies with Subsection (1)(q) are:
             175          (i) "Price assessment performed by Store Z";
             176          (ii) "Price assessment performed by a certified public accounting firm"; or
             177          (iii) "Price assessment performed by employee of Store Y".
             178          (e) For the purposes of Subsection (1)(r), goods or services are randomly selected when
             179      the supplier has no advance knowledge of what goods and services will be surveyed by the
             180      price assessor, and when the supplier certifies its lack of advance knowledge by an affidavit to
             181      be retained in the supplier's records for one year.
             182          (f) (i) It is prima facie evidence of compliance with Subsection (1)(s) if:


             183          (A) the goods compared are substantially the same size; and
             184          (B) the goods compared are of substantially the same quality, which may include
             185      similar models of competing brands of goods, or goods made of substantially the same
             186      materials and made with substantially the same workmanship.
             187          (ii) It is prima facie evidence of a deceptive comparison under this section when the
             188      prices of brand name goods and generic goods are compared.
             189          (3) Any supplier who makes a comparison with a competitor's price in advertising shall
             190      maintain for a period of one year records that disclose the factual basis for such price
             191      comparisons and from which the validity of such claim can be established.
             192          (4) It is a defense to any claim of false or deceptive price representations under this
             193      chapter that a person:
             194          (a) has no knowledge that the represented price is not genuine; and
             195          (b) has made reasonable efforts to determine whether the represented price is genuine.
             196          (5) Subsections (1)(m) and (q) do not apply to price comparisons made in catalogs in
             197      which a supplier compares the price of a single item of its goods or services with those of
             198      another.
             199          (6) To prevail in an action under this chapter, a complainant need not prove
             200      competition between the parties or actual confusion or misunderstanding.
             201          (7) This chapter does not affect unfair trade practices otherwise actionable at common
             202      law or under other statutes of this state.
             203          Section 3. Section 13-11a-6 is enacted to read:
             204          13-11a-6. Truth in music advertising -- Exemptions -- Penalties.
             205          (1) A person may not advertise or conduct a live musical performance by a performing
             206      group by using a false, deceptive, or otherwise misleading affiliation between a performing
             207      group and a recording group of the same name.
             208          (2) This section does not apply to:
             209          (a) a performing group that is the registrant and owner of a registered federal service
             210      mark for the group name;
             211          (b) a performance by a performing group that is clearly identified in all advertising and
             212      promotional materials as a salute or tribute;
             213          (c) a performing group at least one member of which was a member of the recording


             214      group and has a legal right to use of the group name;
             215          (d) the advertising does not relate to a live musical performance occurring in this state;
             216      or
             217          (e) a performance authorized in writing by the recording group.
             218          (3) H. (a) .H This section may be enforced H. [ in the manner provided by
             218a      Subsections 13-11a-4 (2)
             219      through (4)
] by bringing an action in the district court for any county in which the live musical

             219a      performance is advertised or conducted .H .
             219b      H. (b) A party injured by a violation of this section may obtain an injunction and
             219c      recover actual damages.
             219d          (c) The prevailing party in an action under Subsection (3)(a) may be awarded costs
             219e      and attorney fees. .H




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    as of 2-26-09 11:31 AM


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