A group of northwest Georgia carpet dealers met with Governor Deal and state consumer officials this week over an advertising dispute. At issue is a law that’s been on the books since 1962.

That law states that a business cannot advertise and sell their product to the public--as "wholesale". Since last fall, a group of carpet makers came on the radar of state consumer officials for using the word "wholesale" in its ads.

Bill Cloud with the Governor’s office of Consumer Affairs says the companies in dispute have not understood the law correctly.

“You can wholesale and you can retail in the same location, but you can’t make claims that you are wholesaling to the public or to an individual that is an end user.”

Cloud says not true, is one claim made by the companies that the state hasn’t enforced the law. He says over 40 cases have been settled in the past 5 years:

“Only 8 of them had to do with floor coverings and rugs and that type of thing. The rest are things like auto brokers, jewelry, furniture and those types of things. Again, you can’t wholesale anything “quote” to the public.”

In recent months, the state has resolved the issue with a number of carpet makers. Cloud says the Governor’s meeting with the others this week was good, and a resolution should come down soon.

Tags: business, Dalton, northwest Georgia, advertising, Governor Nathan Deal, carpet makers, Governor's Office of Cosumer Affairs, wholesale