Legal Question in Consumer Law in Maryland

False Advertising, is it a Crime?

Let's say you go to the local movie store to purchase a movie. You walk inside the store and go to the ''back'' where the movies you are looking for are located. After looking through all of the pretty faces and scenes depicted on the outside of the box, you finally spot one that interests you. Realizing, after watching said movie, that some of the faces and scenes on the box that you were waiting to see ''in action'' were not in the movie, you feel like you were just ripped off and you ask yourself, 'How come every time I come in here to purchase a movie, I buy one only because of the scene depicted on the box and those scene's are rarely even in the movie, I know I read the outside of the box and it didn't say that the scene's might not be in there, isn't that false advertisement?'.


Asked on 1/09/02, 12:04 am

2 Answers from Attorneys
Alton Drew Alton Drew, LLC

Re: False Advertising, is it a Crime?

While a picture may say a thousand words, weight would be given to the actual words on the box itself. The rating, title, and short description of the "plot" should be enough to tell you what the movie will depict. For more information on false advertising, please take advantage of the helpful legal research links on this web site or give the attorney of your choice a call.

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Answered on 1/09/02, 12:30 am
Michael Worsham Michael C. Worsham, Esq.

Re: False Advertising, is it a Crime?

False advertising is not a crime to my knowledge. I think the pictures on the outside on a video box would have to be totally different from the actual movie content to approach false advertising. I think of James Bond movies, where the cover photograph/montage of action scenes, villians, and women never depicts an actual scene from the movie. This is not false advertising, it is part of the product itself - fantasy and escape. Read the definition in the code of your state for false advertising, and apply that definition to your movie, and see if it fits.

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Answered on 1/09/02, 1:29 am


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