[DRAFT] Fraud and Adverts Act

[Imperium Anglorum]

Regulation: Consumer Protection

The World Assembly, finding that:

1. Fraudulent misrepresentations that cause customers or firms to lose money to liars who misrepresent what they sell, especially across international borders, are a profound harm to consumers or producers who engage in and rely, in good faith, on that trade;
   
   
2. Section 4 of GA 436 "Protecting Free Expression" fails to allow member nations to prohibit fraud; enabling legislation such as this resolution is therefore required to ensure that reasonable restraints on fraudulent speech are both enacted and enforced;

Hereby enacts as follows.

1. Fraud. No person, natural or juridical, may wilfully and dishonestly
   
   
   1. make or
      
      
   2. direct or conspire with another person to make
   a materially false misrepresentation to another person for the purposes of acquiring any thing of value therefrom. This section does not prohibit the World Assembly or any member nation from doing any otherwise lawful act.
   
   
2. Civil action. Violation of section 1 gives rise to a cause of civil action by the injured party against the alleged violator with damages no less than the fair market value of the things of value acquired in proximate consequence of such misrepresentation, less the value of such things already restored.
   
   
   1. This section applies only to claimed injuries arising from contracts memorialised in writing, unless the relevant jurisdiction elects to expand its application under section 5(a).
      
      
   2. It is a defence against liability under this section to show on the balance of probabilities that the claimant knowingly exchanged the thing of value in question for the misrepresentation itself.
3. Anti-alienation. Whensoever a member nation is informed it is more likely than not that a person has violated section 1, it shall prevent that person from alienating or disposing of property which the member nation has probable cause to believe was acquired in violation of section 1.
   
   
4. Clarification. In this resolution a "thing of value" is any thing – including money, tangible or intangible property, or control over or ownership of a corporation – with the primary purpose of bringing or facilitating economic gain to a user or possessor.
   
   
5. Reservation. Member nations may:
   
   
   1. individually extend the cause of action in section 2 of this resolution to oral contracts;
      
      
   2. collectively and individually make further regulations to ensure the truthfulness of commercial speech, including but not limited to the claims made in advertisements; and
      
      
   3. collectively and individually make regulations governing the legality and content of advertisements for products which induce a physical or psychological addiction and advertisements targeted towards certain age groups.

[Imperium Anglorum]

– Nb espionage is basically always illegal. People do it anyway. Even so, it is not otherwise illegal for member states to do.
– I intend to expand, it says draft for a reason.

OOC: Wouldn't nations already regulate fraud as per Reasonable Nation Theory?

"It is nonsensical for the World Assembly to legislate on matters that, well, do not affect the world. If it were called the Morover Assembly, I may be more lenient on this."

GA 436 does not provide an exception for member nations to penalise fraudulent speech. To do so requires passage of further legislation. viewtopic.php?p=34527006#p34527006.

[Untecna]

For such a seasoned author, I'm surprised that there is no preamble. Plus, this would be able to warrant being expanded, but I will wait to see what some others here may say.

Edit: My basic point is that I would wait to make any comments on potential expansions until others make opinions clear.

[Separatist Peoples]

"As written, it appears that a civil cause of action arises when the misrepresented statement is made, and that damages are at least the value of the thing in issue. There doesn't seem to be an explicit requirement of harm from said misrepresentation. I am concerned that it allows individuals to "double dip", getting restorative damages and also keeping their object of value, which doesn't serve the goal of restoring them to their pre-fraud position."

[Imperium Anglorum]

"As written, it appears that a civil cause of action arises when the misrepresented statement is made, and that damages are at least the value of the thing in issue. There doesn't seem to be an explicit requirement of harm from said misrepresentation. I am concerned that it allows individuals to "double dip", getting restorative damages and also keeping their object of value, which doesn't serve the goal of restoring them to their pre-fraud position."

C Marcius Blythe. Would you think adding 'less the value of things already restored' would suffice in that case?

[Thousand Branches]

– Nb espionage is basically always illegal.

Non-binary espionage??? Downright evil!

[Untecna]

"As written, the proposal has no base on what exactly the 'value' it speaks of is. Case and point, Clause 1."

No person, natural or juridical, may wilfully make or direct or conspire with another person to make, a materially false misrepresentation for the purposes of acquiring any thing of value.

"I have bolded out the section in question for emphasis. This clause seems to make it that as long as something has some form of perceived value, even non-monetary, it can be actionable under later clauses. I assume the author refers to monetary value and not personal value, so a clarification of that would suffice."

OOC: Nitpick, I know. Just seems that a bit of clarification might be needed on what "value" might constitute here, just so we don't have to deal with someone saying "Oh, well, if it has personal value to me, then I can use this!" I understand the meaning is monetary value, but making that fully clear would be nice.

[Separatist Peoples]

"As written, it appears that a civil cause of action arises when the misrepresented statement is made, and that damages are at least the value of the thing in issue. There doesn't seem to be an explicit requirement of harm from said misrepresentation. I am concerned that it allows individuals to "double dip", getting restorative damages and also keeping their object of value, which doesn't serve the goal of restoring them to their pre-fraud position."

C Marcius Blythe. Would you think adding 'less the value of things already restored' would suffice in that case?

"I think it would be best to require harm spring from the misrepresentation rather than limit damages. Require an actual loss."

[Morover]

"It is nonsensical for the World Assembly to legislate on matters that, well, do not affect the world. If it were called the Morover Assembly, I may be more lenient on this."

[Apatosaurus]

OOC: Wouldn't nations already regulate fraud as per Reasonable Nation Theory?

[Imperium Anglorum]

OOC: Wouldn't nations already regulate fraud as per Reasonable Nation Theory?

"It is nonsensical for the World Assembly to legislate on matters that, well, do not affect the world. If it were called the Morover Assembly, I may be more lenient on this."

GA 436 does not provide an exception for member nations to penalise fraudulent speech. To do so requires passage of further legislation. viewtopic.php?p=34527006#p34527006. (Edit spacing.)

[Sierra Lyricalia]

"I'd suggest a clarification that fiction, and satire of public figures, shall not be classed as 'misrepresentation.' I'd hate to live in a world in which the Right Reverend Gary Falls-Well wins his lawsuit."

[Imperium Anglorum]

"I'd suggest a clarification that fiction, and satire of public figures, shall not be classed as 'misrepresentation.' I'd hate to live in a world in which the Right Reverend Gary Falls-Well wins his lawsuit."

I changed the Fraud test to require a direct connection:

No person, natural or juridical, may wilfully make or direct or conspire with another person to make, a materially false misrepresentation to another person for the purposes of acquiring any thing of value therefrom.

[Separatist Peoples]

"I'd suggest a clarification that fiction, and satire of public figures, shall not be classed as 'misrepresentation.' I'd hate to live in a world in which the Right Reverend Gary Falls-Well wins his lawsuit."

I changed the Fraud test to require a direct connection:

No person, natural or juridical, may wilfully make or direct or conspire with another person to make, a materially false misrepresentation to another person for the purposes of acquiring any thing of value therefrom.

"This would appear to ban The Onion, but I think there may be a solution, ambassador. I'm going to ponder it."

[Untecna]

I changed the Fraud test to require a direct connection:

No person, natural or juridical, may wilfully make or direct or conspire with another person to make, a materially false misrepresentation to another person for the purposes of acquiring any thing of value therefrom.

"This would appear to ban The Onion, but I think there may be a solution, ambassador. I'm going to ponder it."

"Ambassador Bell, my recommendation for the writer, in this case, would be to make, instead of a one clarification on what value constitutes, create a definitions section in front of all other clauses to define both value and misrepresentation. That's my two cents, anyway."

[Separatist Peoples]

"This would appear to ban The Onion, but I think there may be a solution, ambassador. I'm going to ponder it."

"Ambassador Bell, my recommendation for the writer, in this case, would be to make, instead of a one clarification on what value constitutes, create a definitions section in front of all other clauses to define both value and misrepresentation. That's my two cents, anyway."

"This is a terrible solution that invites reactive reading. A better solution would simply be to limit causes of action for misrepresentation and fraud to matters of contract."

[Untecna]

"Ambassador Bell, my recommendation for the writer, in this case, would be to make, instead of a one clarification on what value constitutes, create a definitions section in front of all other clauses to define both value and misrepresentation. That's my two cents, anyway."

"This is a terrible solution that invites reactive reading. A better solution would simply be to limit causes of action for misrepresentation and fraud to matters of contract."

"And where would we place such limit? A definition would not be as bad, though perhaps stuffed in with the clarification clause of which already exists."

[Separatist Peoples]

"This is a terrible solution that invites reactive reading. A better solution would simply be to limit causes of action for misrepresentation and fraud to matters of contract."

"And where would we place such limit? A definition would not be as bad, though perhaps stuffed in with the clarification clause of which already exists."

"Contract is the limit. Actions in contract are self-evident, which anybody with a modicum of legal training knows."

[Bananaistan]

"The People's Republic of Bananaistan supports the general concept. Far too often have our people and our international trading organisations been let down by shoddy merchandise and false promises by suppliers in the so-called liberal democracies. This sort of thing would make it easier to force them to make good their delinquency through the judicial organs already established this assembly."

[Xanthorrhoea]

Might I suggest the inclusion of statements that are merely misleading in the proposal. Many entities make claims that, while technically true, lead the other party to incorrect assumptions. An example would be internet providers offering “up to 500 gigabits/s” download speed while providing an average speed on 4megabits/s. Such representations should be stamped out, and a fraud proposal seems a good place to do it.

Edit: Potentially this could be expanded to include consumer protections if you have the space. It’s an area I’ve been eying off for a proposal for a while, but it could fit well here. Things like fitness for purpose guarantees, quality guarantees, and provisions covering onerous terms in standard form contracts are potential areas that could be included. However, thorough consumer protections legislation may be beyond the scope you want for this proposal, so feel free to ignore the suggestion.

[Imperium Anglorum]

Reservation clause included.

[Imperium Anglorum]

I changed the Fraud test to require a direct connection:

No person, natural or juridical, may wilfully make or direct or conspire with another person to make, a materially false misrepresentation to another person for the purposes of acquiring any thing of value therefrom.

"This would appear to ban The Onion, but I think there may be a solution, ambassador. I'm going to ponder it."

C Marcius Blythe. We await your pondering with bated breath and shall do some thinking of our own.

[Untecna]

"And where would we place such limit? A definition would not be as bad, though perhaps stuffed in with the clarification clause of which already exists."

"Contract is the limit. Actions in contract are self-evident, which anybody with a modicum of legal training knows."

"And what if the fraudulent activity occurs not from a contract but from another source?"

[Sierra Lyricalia]

Reservation. Member nations, collectively and individually, make make further regulations to ensure the truthfulness of commercial speech, including but not limited to regulations governing advertisements to different age groups, advertisement claims, and the legality or type of advertisements for addictive products.[/list]

"I'll note the scrivener's error here, and pledge my added brainpan hours to the ponderment at hand."

[Imperium Anglorum]

Reservation. Member nations, collectively and individually, make make further regulations to ensure the truthfulness of commercial speech, including but not limited to regulations governing advertisements to different age groups, advertisement claims, and the legality or type of advertisements for addictive products.[/list]

"I'll note the scrivener's error here, and pledge my added brainpan hours to the ponderment at hand."

Thanks. This is what happens when you draft on your phone: you start getting real life references to minor planets. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Makemake.