§ 817.44, Fla. Stat. · Part I. FALSE PRETENSES AND FRAUDS,GENERALLY
Intentional false advertising prohibited.
Text — 2026 Florida Statutes
(1) WHAT CONSTITUTES INTENTIONAL FALSE ADVERTISING.—It is unlawful to offer for sale or to issue invitations for offers for the sale of any property, real or personal, tangible or intangible, or any services, professional or otherwise, by placing or causing to be placed before the general public, by any means whatever, an advertisement describing such property or services as part of a plan or scheme with the intent not to sell such property or services so advertised, or with the intent not to sell such property or services at the price at which it was represented in the advertisement to be available for purchase by any member of the general public.
(2) PRESUMPTION OF VIOLATION.—The failure to sell any article or a class of articles advertised, or the refusal to sell at the price at which it was advertised to be available for purchase, shall create a rebuttable presumption of an intent to violate this section.
(3) EXEMPTION.—This section shall not apply to any publisher of a newspaper, magazine or other publication, or the owner or operator of a radio station, television station or other advertising media, who places before the public an advertisement in good faith without knowledge that the person so engaging or hiring such owner, operator, or publisher has the intent not to sell the property or services so advertised or with the intent not to sell such property or services at the price at which it was represented in the advertisement to be available for purchase by any member of the general public.
Notes and commentary — not statutory text
History
s. 5, ch. 59-301.
Source of truth
- Edition
- 2026 Florida Statutes
- Official file
- https://www.leg.state.fl.us/Statutes/index.cfm?App_mode=Display_Statute&URL=0800-0899/0817/0817.html
- Text hash
- sha256 4aa036dc7781e54ecb80c9f745a001b7d8183ca9ff643bdbdc01eab5c51e114c
- Composed by
- compose_v2.py 2026-10-04: the Legislature's structured HTML read in document order; verify_v2.py's independent reading agrees character for character
- composed from the Legislature's structured HTML (one source of text; no PDF extraction); a second, independent reading of the same bytes agrees character for character
Cited by 2 provisions
Provisions in this library whose text cites § 817.44, Fla. Stat.. Each shows the citation as that text prints it.
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