Legality of False Advertising

[McBainCo]

Is it legal to advertise fictitious roles?

Does the advertising law (if any) apply to contracts?

Can someone point me to the actual law ( if it has been passed) and when it was ennacted?

[NotAllThere]

I believe the penalty for advertising should be death for the first offence.

[Bluebird]

Is it legal to advertise fictitious roles?

Does the advertising law (if any) apply to contracts?

Can someone point me to the actual law ( if it has been passed) and when it was ennacted?

I wouldn't have though so, the law and advertising relates mainly to "claims" of what products can and cannot do, and rubbishing competitors.

I don't see an agency advertising something that doesn't exist as being wrong - after all some shops advertise sale items which aren't in stock...

[Rantor]

Is it legal to advertise fictitious roles?

Does the advertising law (if any) apply to contracts?

Can someone point me to the actual law ( if it has been passed) and when it was ennacted?

I put the same question to Jobserver admin about 4 years ago and they gave me a reply that effectively said 'no its not legal, we have a code of conduct that our advertisers should adhere to but wtf do you expect us to do about it anyway?'

I'll see if I still have it in my mail archive.

[pmeswani]

I put the same question to Jobserver admin about 4 years ago and they gave me a reply that effectively said 'no its not legal, we have a code of conduct that our advertisers should adhere to but wtf do you expect us to do about it anyway?'

I'll see if I still have it in my mail archive.

To which you could have responded...

"Enforce your code of conduct... what else?"

[Beefy198]

I can't think why there would be any specific legislation against it, however any site that wishes to maintain their integrity surely should try and prevent them.

[jmo21]

there are very obvious ones on Jobserve, but for most of these fictitious jobs I reckon it'd be pretty difficult to prove it was fake

The agent will usually say one of the following:

- the role has been filled
- they have filled the role internally
- the role is no longer available as the budget has been pulled

and many more.

So how do you get them to prove any of these?

[McBainCo]

What sort of false advertising are they referring to?

on this link: http://www.computing.co.uk/computing...tising-3900811

I agree that proving it is difficult, but surely they must have had a brief?

Thanks for your views!

[P1mpAndPr0ud]

I'm going to apply the oft-quoted "Tradesman" rule here -

If you got a quote for a plumber to fit a new toilet, and then decided you didn't want it done, would he be able to sue you on the grounds of "false advertising"?

I think not...

Or, more pertinently, if you advertised on Gumtree for a plumber to come and fit a new toilet, one contacted you, came out and did you a quote, and when he got there you told him the toilet had already been fixed. Could he then sue you for "false advertising"?

Not sure about that one, but again I don't think so... He probably wouldn't like you very much, and would refrain fro answering your postings in the future. He might even tell all his plumber friends you're a time-waster. But I don't think he could sue you...

Thoughts, everyone?

[DodgyAgent]

Is it legal to advertise fictitious roles?

Does the advertising law (if any) apply to contracts?

Can someone point me to the actual law ( if it has been passed) and when it was ennacted?

How do you define "a real job".

if a hiring manager simply says if "you have any Cobol programmers I am interested in seeing their Cvs". Is that defined as an actual job?
Or does it need to have 10 pages of job specs, plus H&S rules and everything else?