by Jeff Sovern
A grocery store in Nassau County, New York was found to have displayed 144 products (including vitamins, baby formula, nasal decongestant, and tanning oil) with expired manufacturers' dates. The Nassau County Department of Consumer Affairs cited the store under the authority of a local law barring deceptive trade practices, in which a deceptive trade practice is defined as:
Any false . . . or misleading oral or written statement, visual description or other representation of any kind, which has the capacity, tendency or effect of deceiving or misleading consumers . . . [D]eceptive trade practices include but are not limited to: (1) representations that: . . . (d) goods or services are of [a] particular standard, quality, grade, style, or model, if they are of another.
The New York Court of Appeals (the highest court in the state), per Judge Rosenblatt, held that the sale or display of such items is not deceptive or misleading. Food Parade, Inc. v. Office of Consumer Affairs of County of Nassau, --- N.E.2d ----, 7 N.Y.3d 568, 2006 WL 3007047 (2006). While normally a case interpreting a local law would be of little interest outside the locality involved, because the local law in question uses language resembling that employed by many other jurisdictions, the decision may be of some significance nationally.
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