[Laws in effect as of January 24, 2002]
[Document not affected by Public Laws enacted between
January 24, 2002 and December 19, 2002]
[CITE: 15USC55]
TITLE 15--COMMERCE AND TRADE
CHAPTER 2--FEDERAL TRADE COMMISSION; PROMOTION OF EXPORT TRADE AND
PREVENTION OF UNFAIR METHODS OF COMPETITION
SUBCHAPTER I--FEDERAL TRADE COMMISSION
Sec. 55. Additional definitions
For the purposes of sections 52 to 54 of this title--
(a) False advertisement
(1) The term ``false advertisement'' means an advertisement, other
than labeling, which is misleading in a material respect; and in
determining whether any advertisement is misleading, there shall be
taken into account (among other things) not only representations made or
suggested by statement, word, design, device, sound, or any combination
thereof, but also the extent to which the advertisement fails to reveal
facts material in the light of such representations or material with
respect to consequences which may result from the use of the commodity
to which the advertisement relates under the conditions prescribed in
said advertisement, or under such conditions as are customary or usual.
No advertisement of a drug shall be deemed to be false if it is
disseminated only to members of the medical profession, contains no
false representation of a material fact, and includes, or is accompanied
in each instance by truthful disclosure of, the formula showing
quantitatively each ingredient of such drug.
(2) In the case of oleomargarine or margarine an advertisement shall
be deemed misleading in a material respect if in such advertisement
representations are made or suggested by statement, word, grade
designation, design, device, symbol, sound, or any combination thereof,
that such oleomargarine or margarine is a dairy product, except that
nothing contained herein shall prevent a truthful, accurate, and full
statement in any such advertisement of all the ingredients contained in
such oleomargarine or margarine.
(b) Food
The term ``food'' means (1) articles used for food or drink for man
or other animals, (2) chewing gum, and (3) articles used for components
of any such article.
(c) Drug
The term ``drug'' means (1) articles recognized in the official
United States Pharmacopoeia, official Homoeopathic Pharmacopoeia of the
United States, or official National Formulary, or any supplement to any
of them; and (2) articles intended for use in the diagnosis, cure,
mitigation, treatment, or prevention of disease in man or other animals;
and (3) articles (other than food) intended to affect the structure or
any function of the body of man or other animals; and (4) articles
intended for use as a component of any article specified in clause (1),
(2), or (3); but does not include devices or their components, parts, or
accessories.
(d) Device
The term ``device'' (except when used in subsection (a) of this
section) means an instrument, apparatus, implement, machine,
contrivance, implant, in vitro reagent, or other similar or related
article, including any component, part, or accessory, which is--
(1) recognized in the official National Formulary, or the United
States Pharmacopeia, or any supplement to them,
(2) intended for use in the diagnosis of disease or other
conditions, or in the cure, mitigation, treatment, or prevention of
disease, in man or other animals, or
(3) intended to affect the structure or any function of the body
of man or other animals, and
which does not achieve any of its principal intended purposes through
chemical action within or on the body of man or other animals and which
is not dependent upon being metabolized for the a
