H. B. 2945
(By Delegates Tabb, Wysong, Doyle, Amores,
Webster, Duke and Trump)
[Introduced March 9, 2005
; referred to the
Committee on the Judiciary.]
A BILL to amend the Code of West Virginia, 1931, as amended, by
adding thereto a new section, designated §46A-6-111, relating
to prohibiting solicitors who leave empty containers
requesting water samples from state residents from doing so
without contemporaneously attaching or affixing with the
container unambiguous documentation identifying the name of
their company, the address and telephone number of its
principal place of business, the geographical location of its
main theater of operations, its correct corporate name, if
applicable, the state wherein it is incorporated, if
applicable, a clear description of any prospective product or
service it seeks to solicit for sale, the cost or costs
involved to obtain the product or service, and a clear
statement that the person being solicited is not obligated to
accept or purchase the product or service; providing a civil
penalty; and providing that persons who violate the prohibition have engaged in an unfair method of competition
and unfair or deceptive act or practice
as defined in the
article.
Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:
That the Code of West Virginia, 1931, as amended, be amended
by adding thereto a new section, designated §46A-6-111,
to read as
follows:
ARTICLE 6. GENERAL CONSUMER PROTECTION.
§46A-6-111. Solicitation of water samples by persons or private
entities seeking profit.
(a) No person or other private entity may:
(1) Solicit water samples in this state;
(2) With the purpose or design of offering for sale any
product or service represented as capable of improving water
quality, without, contemporaneously with the solicitation,
providing unambiguous information in written or printed form,
identifying the name of the company making the solicitation, the
address and telephone number of its principal place of business,
the geographical location of its main theater of operations, its
correct corporate name, if applicable, the state wherein it is
incorporated, if applicable, a clear description of any product or
service it seeks to solicit for sale, the cost or costs involved to
obtain the product or service, and a clear statement that the
person or persons being solicited have no obligation to accept or purchase the product or service.
(b) If a person or private entity has violated the provisions
of subsection (a) of this section, the person or persons being
solicited have a cause of action to recover from the person or
private entity soliciting a civil penalty of two hundred dollars
for each violation.
(c) Any person or private entity violating the provisions of
subsection (a)of this section, may be considered as having engaged
in an unfair method of competition and unfair or deceptive act or
practice as defined under subdivisions two and three, subsection
(f), section one hundred two of this article, and as such, may be
subject to any applicable penalty or remedy provided in this
chapter in addition to the civil penalty provided in subsection (b)
of this section.
NOTE: The purpose of this bill is to prohibit solicitors who
leave empty containers requesting water samples from state
residents, from doing so without contemporaneously attaching or
affixing with the container unambiguous documentation identifying
the name of their company, the address and telephone number of its
principal place of business, the geographical location of its main
theater of operations, its correct corporate name, if applicable,
the state wherein it is incorporated, if applicable, a clear
description of any prospective product or service it seeks to
solicit for sale, the cost or costs involved to obtain the product
or service, and a clear statement that the person being solicited
is not obligated to accept or purchase the product or service. The
bill also provides a civil penalty while providing that persons
who violate the prohibition have engaged in an unfair method of
competition and unfair or deceptive act or practice
as defined in
the article.
This section is new; therefore, strike-throughs and
underscoring have been omitted.
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