Title XXIX, Commerce and Trade

The secret payment or allowance of rebates, refunds, commissions or unearned discounts, whether in the form of money or otherwise, or secretly extending to certain purchasers special services or privileges not extended to all purchasers purchasing upon like terms and conditions, …

(1) The use of a document mailed to members of the general public, the purpose of which is to market a product, when the document purports to inform the recipient that he has won a prize, without prominently and conspicuously communicating by clear and understandable language in …

Any contract, express or implied, made in violation of any of the provisions of KRS 365.020 to 365.050 is an illegal contract and no recovery shall be had thereon.

(1) Any person may maintain an action to enjoin a continuance of any act in violation of any of the provisions of KRS 365.020 to 365.050, and if injured thereby for the recovery of damages. If, in such action, the court finds that the defendant is violating or has violated any of…

No person shall use a false brand on anything sold, or to be sold or offered for sale, with intent to deceive the purchaser.

No dealer or merchant shall make or apply or cause to be made or applied to any parcel or package any kind or character of label bearing the brand or name of any manufacturer without the written authority of the manufacturer.

services to all newspapers without discrimination. As a condition to carrying on any part of its business in this state, every foreign corporation formed for the purpose or engaged in the business of buying, gathering, accumulating, vending, supplying, distributing or publishing …

refusal. (1) Any person carrying on in this state the business of conducting or publishing a newspaper may notify any foreign corporation of the kind referred to in KRS 365.210, or any agent of such corporation upon whom process can be served under the laws of this state, that he…

without discrimination. Every telegraph company, telephone company, or other company engaged in buying, gathering or transmitting dispatches shall afford the same and equal facilities to all publishers of newspapers, and shall furnish all news or information collected by them for…

property. (1) As used in this section: (a) "Counterfeit mark" means: 1. Any unauthorized reproduction or copy of intellectual property; or 2. Intellectual property knowingly affixed to any item without the authority of the owner of the intellectual property. (b) "Intellectual pro…

(1) As used in this section: (a) "Authorized agencies" means the Cabinet for Health and Family Services and the Department of Financial Institutions; (b) "Financial exploitation" means: 1. The wrongful or unauthorized taking, withholding, appropriation, or use of a specified adul…

KRS 365.260 to 365.380 shall be known and may be cited as the "Act to Prevent Unfair Cigarette Sales in Kentucky."

(1) The General Assembly hereby finds and declares as follows: (a) Cigarettes, because of their standardized character, their great popularity, their widespread and varied types of markets and methods of distribution and the sensitivity of their distribution to price fluctuations…

As used in KRS 365.260 to 365.380, unless the context otherwise requires: (1) "Person" means and includes any individual, firm, association, company, partnership, corporation, joint stock company, club, agency, syndicate, the Commonwealth of Kentucky and any municipal corporation…

(1) It shall be unlawful for any wholesaler or retailer to sell, at wholesale or retail, cigarettes at less than cost to the wholesaler or retailer, as the case may be, as defined in KRS 365.260 to 365.380, for the purpose of destroying competition or substantially lessening comp…

In all sales involving two (2) or more items, at least one (1) of which items is cigarettes, at a combined price, and in all sales involving the giving of any gift or concession of any kind, whether it be coupons or otherwise, the wholesaler's or retailer's combined selling price…

When one (1) wholesaler sells cigarettes to any other wholesaler, the former shall not be required to include in his selling price to the latter, "cost to the wholesaler," as provided by KRS 365.270(11), but the latter wholesaler, upon resale to a retailer, shall be subject to th…

The provisions of KRS 365.260 to 365.380 shall not apply to a sale at wholesale or a sale at retail made: (1) In an isolated transaction and not in the usual course of business; (2) Where cigarettes are sold in a bona fide clearance sale for the purpose of discontinuing trade in …

(1) Any wholesaler may sell cigarettes to a regular customer at a price made in good faith to meet the legal price of a competitor selling to the same customer. Any retailer may sell cigarettes at a price made in good faith to meet the legal price of a competitor. The price of ci…

Any contract, express or implied, made by any person in violation of any of the provisions of KRS 365.260 to 365.380, shall be void and no recovery shall be had thereon.

basic cost. In establishing the basic cost of cigarettes to a wholesaler or a retailer it shall not be permissible to use the invoice cost or the actual cost of any cigarettes purchased at a forced, bankrupt, or closeout sale, or other sale outside of the ordinary channels of tra…

damages need not be alleged or proved -- Costs. (1) The department, or any person injured by any violation, or who may suffer injury from any threatened violation of KRS 365.260 to 365.380, may maintain an action in any court of equitable jurisdiction to prevent, restrain, or enj…

survey. (1) In determining cost to the wholesaler and cost to the retailer, the court shall receive and consider as bearing on the bona fides of the cost, evidence tending to show that any person complained against under any of the provisions of KRS 365.260 to 365.380 purchased t…

(1) The department shall promulgate administrative regulations for the enforcement of KRS 365.260 to 365.380 and may from time to time undertake and make or cause to be made one (1) or more cost surveys for the state or trading area or areas as it defines. When each survey is mad…

(1) No person shall engage in or conduct the business of purchasing for resale or selling cigarettes without having first obtained the appropriate license. (2) No person licensed only as a wholesaler shall operate as a retailer unless the appropriate license is first secured. (3)…

Special account -- Fee deemed an additional cost. (1) To provide for the enforcement of KRS 138.146 and KRS 365.260 to 365.380, every cigarette wholesaler licensed under KRS 138.195 shall pay an enforcement and administration fee to the Department of Revenue on a monthly basis fo…

As used in KRS 365.400 to 365.408, unless the context indicates otherwise: (1) "Automatic renewal" means a plan or arrangement in which a paid subscription, membership, or purchase agreement is automatically renewed at the end of a definite paid term for a subsequent paid term of…

service offers -- Cancellation or termination -- Notice of material change. (1) A business that makes an automatic renewal or continuous service offer to a consumer in this state shall: (a) Present the automatic renewal offer terms or continuous service offer terms in a clear and…

KRS 365.400 and 365.402 shall not apply to: (1) Any service provided by a business or its affiliate where either the business or its affiliate is operating pursuant to a franchise issued by a political subdivision of this state or a license, franchise, certificate, or other autho…

(1) If a business fails to comply with KRS 365.402 and it is the business's first violation, the business shall provide a prorated refund for the contract subject to an automatic renewal provision from the start of the most recent term to the date on which the business was notifi…

KRS 365.400 to 365.408 shall not apply to contracts entered into prior to January 1, 2024.

As used in KRS 365.410 to 365.480 and 365.992: (1) "Going out of business sale" means any sale, whether described by such name or by any other name such as, but not limited to, "closing out sale," "liquidation sale," "lost our lease sale," "forced to vacate sale," held in such a …

No person shall advertise, represent or hold out to the public that any sale of goods is an insurance, bankruptcy, mortgage foreclosure, insolvent's, assignee's, executor's, administrator's, receiver's, trustee's, removal sale, going out of business sale or fire sale unless he fi…

Any person proposing to conduct any sale governed by KRS 365.410 to 365.480 and 365.992 shall file an application in writing and under oath with the county clerk setting out the following facts and information regarding the proposed sale: (1) The name and address of the applicant…

No application for a going-out-of-business sale shall be accepted by the county clerk if the sale involves foods or drugs damaged by fire or other casualty unless the approval of the Cabinet for Health and Family Services has first been obtained.

(1) The clerk, upon receipt of an application giving fully and completely the information under oath as required by KRS 365.420 and upon receipt of the fee provided for in KRS 365.445, shall issue a license to the applicant, authorizing the applicant to advertise, represent, and …

Every clerk to whom application is made, shall indorse upon the application the date of its filing, shall preserve the same as a record of his office, and shall make an abstract of the facts set forth in the application in a book kept for that purpose, properly indexed, containin…

Every bond given in connection with any sale under KRS 365.410 to 365.480 and 365.992 shall be kept by the county clerk of the county in which the sale is conducted until the expiration of three (3) years from the final date of the sale as filed, and shall then be surrendered to …

A license to conduct a sale issued pursuant to KRS 365.410 to 365.480 and 365.992 shall not be issued or valid for a period of more than thirty (30) days from the start of the sale, and the sale may be conducted only during the period set forth in the license. The license may be …

An individual, partnership, corporation, association, or other firm shall not acquire more than two (2) going out of business sale permits during a four (4) year period, excluding renewals awarded pursuant to KRS 365.445, unless the Attorney General determines after investigation…

No person shall advertise or otherwise represent, for sale, or sell, any goods as a bankruptcy, executor's, administrator's, receiver's, or trustee's sale, except pursuant to, and in compliance with, federal or state statutory authority or judicial process, or as an assignee's or…

A copy of the application for a license to conduct a sale under KRS 365.410 to 365.480 and 365.992, including the inventory filed herewith, shall be posted in a conspicuous place in the sales room or place where the inventoried goods are to be sold, so that the public may be info…

Any removal of the goods included in an application from the place of sale mentioned in the application shall cause the goods to become disqualified for inclusion in a going out of business sale, removal sale or fire sale and no license thereafter shall be issued for the conducti…

No person proposing to conduct an insurance, bankruptcy, mortgage foreclosure, insolvent's, assignee's, executor's, administrator's, receiver's, trustee's, removal sale, going out of business sale, or fire sale under a license as provided in KRS 365.410 to 365.480 and 365.992 sha…

No person carrying on or conducting an insurance, bankruptcy, mortgage foreclosure, insolvent's, assignee's, executor's, administrator's, receiver's, trustee's, removal sale, going out of business sale, or fire sale under a license as provided in KRS 365.410 to 365.480 and 365.99…

The provisions of KRS 365.410 to 365.480 and 365.992 shall not apply to sheriffs, constables, or other public or court officers, or to any other person or persons acting under the direction or authority of any court, state or federal, selling goods, wares or merchandise in the co…