I see as one of the major issues to Eliminate -A- and -B- right away is the use of the Pronoun "it".

The author is saying that the "act" of "failure to advertise....." is what "violates the NYC Law.

the Rule is that we can not use a Pronoun to refer to something that is not Noun-like.

In both -A- and -B-, the pronoun "it" is being used to refer to the entire act of failing to advertise the highest price as prominently as the lowest price.


-D- ".... failure to advertise as prominently the highest price ....... as the lowest [price] violates the law."

One way that this sentence can be interpreted is that the law requires you to advertise the highest price AS the lowest price. This does not make sense. At the very least, the sentence is ambiguous and is not written well.


-E- "....failing to advertise as prominently the highest price..... as that of the lowest [price] violates the law."

Again, we have the same possible misinterpretation discussed above for Answer (D). Further, there is no logical antecedent for "that." If "that" is intended to refer to the antecedent "price", you are effectively saying"

"failing to advertise as prominently the highest price..... as the price of the lowest price violates the law."


-C- "failure to advertise the highest price ..... as prominently as the lowest [price] violates the law."

As stated above, the Idiom = "X as prominently as Y" is correctly used. The sentence is clear and we know what the author is trying to tell us.

-C-

Hello GMATNinja,

Could you advise me why option C is better than option D. Option D does follow idiomatic structure AS X AS Y i.e. AS Prominently the Highest Price blah blah AS the Lowest.

I couldn't make much difference between option C and option D. option C says X as prominently as Y. X and Y are higher and lowest price respectively.

From idiom perspective both option C and D looked good to me. Core of sentence is also fine i.e. Failure(Subject) violates(Verb) the Law.

Thanks
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According to the Better Business Bureau, if you fail to advertise the highest price in a range of prices for a service or product as prominently as that of the lowest, it violates the New York Consumer Protection Law.


(A) if you fail to advertise the highest price in a range of prices for a service or product as prominently as that of the lowest, it

-- Pronoun ambiguity

(B) if one fails to advertise the highest price in a range of prices for a service or product as prominently as the lowest price, it

-- Pronoun ambiguity

(C) failure to advertise the highest price in a range of prices for a service or product as prominently as the lowest

-- Correct idiom usage; CORRECT.

(D) failure to advertise as prominently the highest price in a range of prices for a service or product as the lowest

'as prominently....as the lowest' -- too much in between these terms.

(E) failing to advertise as prominently the highest price in a range of prices for a service or products as that of the lowest

-- 'that of' what? The lowest price of the lowest? Non-sensical.

Answer is C.
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this question shows that we should study official questions carefully


comparison is hard and involve ellipsis.
if clause in comparison contain only subject, object and,so, the elements compared are clear, the noun after "than" dose not need any helping verb to make clear what is compared.
I sing better than you (this is correct. we can add "do" after "you" but "do" is not needed. ). the clause of comparison contains only subject and element compared are clear. on gmat , both "I sing better than you" and " I sing better than you do" are correct.

"failure to advertise X as Y is bad"

this is the case in which the comparison clause contain only object. elements compared are clear and helping verbs are not needed.

if the clause in comparison contain both a subject and a object, we need helping verbs such as do/did/would/is to make clear what , subjects are objects ,are compared.

I like cakes more than you (adding "do" makes different meaning)

I think if the second clause dose not contain helping verb, the comparison is about objects. but gmat dose not show this point.

the point is that we should be confident that in some cases, helping verbs are not needed.

only when we care confident this way, we go ahead to consider other errors. read the official explanation of choice D and see that comparison in choice D is also correct.

choice D is inferior to choice C because "as prominently" is inserted between the verb and the objective. this is inferior, but not wrong. ellipsis and comparison in choice D is right.