South Carolina § 32-7-90 - Soliciting and advertising.

§ 32-7-90. Soliciting and advertising.

(A) A contract seller, provider, agent, employee, or person acting in behalf of one of these persons may not:

(1) directly or indirectly call upon individuals or persons in hospitals, rest homes, nursing homes, or similar institutions for the purpose of soliciting preneed funeral contracts or making funeral or final disposition arrangements without first having been specifically requested by the person to do so;

(2) directly or indirectly employ an agent, assistant, employee, independent contracting person, or other person to call upon individuals or persons in hospitals, rest homes, nursing homes, or similar institutions for the purpose of soliciting preneed funeral contracts or making funeral or final disposition arrangements without first having been specifically requested by the person to do so;

(3) solicit relatives of persons whose death is apparently pending or whose death has recently occurred for the purpose of providing funeral services, final disposition, burial, or funeral goods for the person;

(4) solicit or accept or pay consideration for recommending or causing a dead human body to be provided funeral services and funeral and burial goods by specific persons, or the services of a specific crematory, mausoleum, or cemetery unless the arrangement is the subject of a preneed funeral contract; or

(5) solicit by telephone call or by visit to a personal residence unless the solicitation has been previously requested by the person solicited or by a family member residing at the residence.

(B) This chapter does not restrict the right of a person lawfully to advertise, to use direct mail, or otherwise communicate in a manner not within the above prohibition of solicitation or to solicit the business of anyone responding to the communication or otherwise initiating discussion of the goods or services being offered.

(C) This chapter does not prohibit general advertising.

(D) A person making a personal or written solicitation for a preneed funeral contract, as soon as possible, shall divulge the real reason for the contract or solicitation.

(E) The department may promulgate regulations for the solicitation of preneed contracts by sellers and providers and their agents and employees to protect the public from solicitation practices that utilize undue influence or that take undue advantage of a person's ignorance or emotional vulnerability.

HISTORY: 1962 Code SECTION 11-180; 1973 (58) 339; 1989 Act No. 89, SECTION 1; 2009 Act No. 70, SECTION 1, eff July 1, 2009.

Effect of Amendment

The 2009 amendment made nonsubstantive changes throughout; and, in subsection (E), substituted "department" for "board".