West Virginia Code 36-9-10 – Advertising materials
(a) All advertising materials shall be filed with the division within ten days of use."Advertising materials" include:
Terms Used In West Virginia Code 36-9-10
- Accommodations: means any apartment, condominium or cooperative unit, cabin, lodge, hotel or motel room or any other private or commercial structure which is situated on real property and designed for occupancy by one or more individuals. See West Virginia Code 36-9-4
- Contract: A legal written agreement that becomes binding when signed.
- Contract: means any agreement conferring the rights and obligations of the time-sharing plan on the purchaser. See West Virginia Code 36-9-4
- Developer: means the person creating a time-sharing plan. See West Virginia Code 36-9-4
- Division: means the division of land sales and condominiums in the office of the State Auditor. See West Virginia Code 36-9-4
- Facilities: means any structure, service, improvement or real property, improved or unimproved, which is made available to the purchasers of a time-sharing plan. See West Virginia Code 36-9-4
- Gift: A voluntary transfer or conveyance of property without consideration, or for less than full and adequate consideration based on fair market value.
- Obligation: An order placed, contract awarded, service received, or similar transaction during a given period that will require payments during the same or a future period.
- Purchaser: means any person who is buying or who has bought a time-share period in a time-sharing plan. See West Virginia Code 36-9-4
- Seller: means any developer or any other person, or agent or employee thereof, who is offering time-share periods for sale to the public in the ordinary course of business, except a person who has acquired a time-share period for his own occupancy and later offers it for resale. See West Virginia Code 36-9-4
- State: when applied to a part of the United States and not restricted by the context, includes the District of Columbia and the several territories, and the words "United States" also include the said district and territories. See West Virginia Code 2-2-10
- Time-sharing plan: means any arrangement, plan, scheme or similar device, other than an exchange program, whether by membership, agreement, tenancy in common, sale, lease, deed, rental agreement, license or right-to-use agreement or by any other means, whereby a purchaser, in exchange for a consideration receives a right to use accommodations or facilities, or both, for a specific period of time less than a full year during any given year, but not necessarily for consecutive years, and which extends for a period of more than three years. See West Virginia Code 36-9-4
(1) Promotional brochures, pamphlets, advertisements or other materials to be disseminated to the public in connection with the sale of time shares;
(2) Transcripts of radio and television advertisements;
(3) Lodging certificates;
(4) Transcripts of standard verbal sales presentations; and
(5) Any other advertising materials.
(b) No advertising shall:
(1) Misrepresent a fact or create a false or misleading impression regarding the time-sharing plan;
(2) Make a prediction of specific or immediate increases in the price or value of time-share periods;
(3) Contain a statement concerning future price increases by the seller which are nonspecific or not bona fide;
(4) Contain any asterisk or other reference symbol as a means of contradicting or substantially changing any previously made statement or as a means of obscuring a material fact;
(5) Describe any improvement to the time-sharing plan that is not required to be built or that is uncompleted unless the improvement is conspicuously labeled as "NEED NOT BE BUILT,""PROPOSED" or "UNDER CONSTRUCTION" with the date or promised completion clearly indicated.
(6) Misrepresent the size, nature, extent, qualities or characteristics of the offered accommodations or facilities;
(7) Misrepresent the amount or period of time during which the accommodations or facilities will be available to any purchaser;
(8) Misrepresent the nature or extent of any services incident to the time-sharing plan;
(9) Make any misleading or deceptive representation with respect to the contents of the public offering statement and the contract or the purchasers' rights, privileges, benefits or obligations under the contract or this chapter; and
(10) Misrepresent the conditions under which a purchaser may exchange the right to use accommodations or facilities in one location for the right to use accommodations or facilities in another location.
(c) No promotional device, including any sweepstakes, lodging certificate, gift award, premium, discount, drawing or display booth, may be utilized without a disclosure that:
(1) The promotional device is being used for the purpose of soliciting sales of time-share periods; and
(2) The promotional device is being used to obtain the names and addresses of prospective purchasers and that any names and addresses acquired may be used for the purpose of soliciting sales of time-share periods.
(d) When a time-share project uses free offers, gift enterprises, drawings, sweepstakes or discounts as a promotional program, the rules of such promotional program shall be disclosed to the public and shall state:
(1) The name of each time-sharing plan or business entity participating in the program;
(2) The day and year by which all prizes listed or offered will be awarded; and
(3) The method by which all prizes are to be awarded.
(e) At least one of each prize featured in a promotional program shall be awarded by the day and year specified in the promotion. When a promotion promises the award of a certain number of each prize, such number of prizes shall be awarded by the date and year specified in the promotion. A record shall be maintained containing the names and addresses of winners of the prizes and the record shall be made available upon request, to the public, upon payment of reasonable reproduction costs.
(f) The division shall require full disclosure of all pertinent information concerning the use of lodging certificates in a promotional campaign, including the terms and conditions of the campaign and the fact and extent of participation in such campaign by the developer. The division further may require reasonable assurances that the obligation incurred by a seller or the seller's agent in a lodging certificate program can be met. Such programs are subject to the prior approval of the division.
(g) If at any time the division determines that any advertising fails to meet the requirements of this section, the division may undertake enforcement action under the provisions of section twenty-three of this article.