Section 546B.2. Veterans benefits appeal services — advertising disclosure requirements — civil penalties.

  1.  A person advertising services to represent or assist veterans in appealing a denial of veterans benefits shall conspicuously disclose in the advertisement, in similar type size or voice-over, that appeal services are also offered at no cost by county commission of veteran affairs offices as maintained pursuant to section 35B.6.

  2.  A person who fails to comply with the provisions of this section is subject to a civil penalty not to exceed one thousand dollars for each violation. Civil penalties shall be assessed by the district court in an action initiated by the attorney general. For the purposes of computing the amount of each civil penalty, each day of a continuing violation constitutes a separate violation. Additionally, the attorney general may accept a civil penalty as determined by the attorney general in settlement of an investigation of a violation of this section regardless of whether an action has been filed pursuant to this section. Any civil penalty recovered shall be deposited in the veterans trust fund created in section 35A.13.

  3.  This section does not apply to the owner or personnel of any medium in which an advertisement appears or through which an advertisement is disseminated.

2011 Acts, ch 49, §2

; 2015 Acts, ch 74, §3

NEW subsection 3