Florida Statutes 497.164 – Solicitation of goods or services
Current as of: 2023 | Check for updates
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Terms Used In Florida Statutes 497.164
- Board: means the Board of Funeral, Cemetery, and Consumer Services. See Florida Statutes 497.005
- Department: means the Department of Financial Services. See Florida Statutes 497.005
- merchandise: means any personal property offered or sold by any person for use in connection with the final disposition, memorialization, interment, entombment, or inurnment of human remains or cremated remains, including, but not limited to, caskets, outer burial containers, alternative containers, cremation containers, cremation interment containers, urns, monuments, private mausoleums, flowers, benches, vases, acknowledgment cards, register books, memory folders, prayer cards, and clothing. See Florida Statutes 497.005
- Person: when used without qualification such as "natural" or "individual" includes both natural persons and legal entities. See Florida Statutes 497.005
- Personal residence: means any residential building in which one temporarily or permanently maintains her or his abode, including, but not limited to, an apartment or a hotel, motel, nursing home, convalescent home, home for the aged, or a public or private institution. See Florida Statutes 497.005
- Rules: refers to rules adopted under this chapter unless expressly indicated to the contrary. See Florida Statutes 497.005
- Solicitation: means any communication that directly or implicitly requests an immediate oral response from the recipient. See Florida Statutes 497.005
(1) The board is authorized to adopt rules regulating the solicitation of sales of burial rights, merchandise, or services by licensees.
(2) The board shall regulate such solicitation to protect the public from solicitation which is intimidating, overreaching, fraudulent, or misleading; which utilizes undue influence; or which takes undue advantage of a person‘s ignorance or emotional vulnerability.
(3) The board shall regulate any solicitation which comprises an uninvited invasion of personal privacy. It is the express finding of the Legislature that the public have a high expectation of privacy in their personal residences, and the department by rule shall restrict the hours or otherwise regulate such solicitation in the personal residence of a person unless the solicitation has been previously and expressly requested by the person solicited.
(4) Nothing in this section shall be construed to restrict the right of a person to lawfully advertise, use direct mail, or otherwise communicate in a manner not within the definition of solicitation or to solicit the business of anyone responding to such communication or otherwise initiating discussion of goods and services being offered.
(5) At-need solicitation of sales of burial rights, merchandise, or services is prohibited. No person may contact the family or next of kin of a deceased person to sell services or merchandise unless the person has been initially called or contacted by the family or next of kin of such person or persons and requested to provide services or merchandise.