[Warning: I’m not a lawyer.] As people answered it mostly for USA, I gave it a check for other countries.
For both Italian law (article 640 of the Penal Code) and Brazilian law (the famous article 171 of the Penal Code), this behaviour falls neatly into fraud laws, and leads to a few years of reclusion. I couldn’t find any law specifically for selling it as if it was a drug though.
For Portugal I actually found a paper about the topic. It claims that it isn’t a crime per se, but it’s usually filled under other crimes, and the paper proposes the creation of specific laws against it. [EDIT: as AdNecrias correctly highlights, this is a sci paper, not legislation.]
I kind of expect other countries and their legal systems to be the same in this regard. It’s simply not a pressing issue.
Just want to add that the Portuguese document there is a scientific paper, not legislation. Not sure on how proposals might have been changed the law in the 4 years after it but it’s become more pertinent because the increase of tourism was accompanied by these scams (my source for this is word of mouth, take it with a grain of salt)
it’s become more pertinent because the increase of tourism was accompanied by these scams (my source for this is word of mouth, take it with a grain of salt)
Yup, and the paper confirms it: “Esta atividade é regularmente realizada nas grandes cidades do nosso país, mormente nas zonas de grande afluência turística” (this activity is regularly conducted in the larger cities of our country, mainly in the zones with great touristic affluence).
[Warning: I’m not a lawyer.] As people answered it mostly for USA, I gave it a check for other countries.
For both Italian law (article 640 of the Penal Code) and Brazilian law (the famous article 171 of the Penal Code), this behaviour falls neatly into fraud laws, and leads to a few years of reclusion. I couldn’t find any law specifically for selling it as if it was a drug though.
For Portugal I actually found a paper about the topic. It claims that it isn’t a crime per se, but it’s usually filled under other crimes, and the paper proposes the creation of specific laws against it. [EDIT: as AdNecrias correctly highlights, this is a sci paper, not legislation.]
I kind of expect other countries and their legal systems to be the same in this regard. It’s simply not a pressing issue.
Just want to add that the Portuguese document there is a scientific paper, not legislation. Not sure on how proposals might have been changed the law in the 4 years after it but it’s become more pertinent because the increase of tourism was accompanied by these scams (my source for this is word of mouth, take it with a grain of salt)
I added it to the comment - thank you!
Yup, and the paper confirms it: “Esta atividade é regularmente realizada nas grandes cidades do nosso país, mormente nas zonas de grande afluência turística” (this activity is regularly conducted in the larger cities of our country, mainly in the zones with great touristic affluence).