Tim
Valparaiso,#2Consumer Comment
Sun, June 27, 2004
I'm not qualified to be handing out legal advice, but I don't really consider this to be "advice," so, the answer to your question is yes. This is perfectly legal. If this was illegal in a criminal sense it would probably fall under fraud. This would require a level of criminal intent that isn't apparent from your account. They were negligent at most. Also, no money changes hands until the actual price and terms are known. You'd need one hell of a prosecutor to pull off this case. If this were illegal in a civil sense it would fall under contract law since the only potential damages are economic. Most, if not all states do not consider advertisements to be actual "offers" unless they are quite definite in their terms. The circular that they sent you would never make the cut. As such, what they sent you, in the eyes of the law, is an "invitation to offer." No contractual relationship is created until you call and "offer" to take them up on their deal, and they accept your offer by taking your reservation. Until that point, you have no damages and no case. It doesn't seem very fair, but keep in mind that much of the law is desingned in a way that benefits the economy as a whole at the expense of the individual consumer. This is a situation where liability should not attach. First, the consumer has no real damages to compensate. Second, the criminal liability that could attach to this activity would greatly increase the legal expenses of many companies, thus driving up prices of goods across the board. Third, the civil liability that could attach would expose companies to so much liability that they may opt not to engage in certain enterprises that are socially and economically beneficial. Is this kind of activity morally acceptable? Probably not in many cases. But false advertisement is better confronted through consumer forums than legal liability.