Maine

• Pages: 251-260

251

CHAPTER 21

MAINE

A. Scope of the Statute and Elements of a Cause of Action

The Maine Unfair Trade Practices Act (MUTPA)1 prohibits “unfair

methods of competition and unfair or deceptive acts or practices in the

conduct of any trade or commerce.”2 The terms “trade” and “commerce”

include “the advertising, offering for sale, sale or distribution of any

services and any property, tangible or intangible, real personal or mixed,

and any other article, commodity or thing of value” in Maine, as well as

any trade or commerce “directly or indirectly affecting the people” of

Maine.3 A transaction occurs in the conduct of trade or commerce only if

it “takes place in a business context, as opposed to one done on a private,

nonprofessional basis.”4

Similarly, the state’s Uniform Deceptive Trade Practices Act

(UDTPA)5 prohibits twelve enumerated deceptive practices, including a

catchall prohibition of “any other conduct which similarly creates a

likelihood of confusion or of misunderstanding” in the course of business,

vocation, or occupation.6

Numerous Maine consumer protection acts and statutes expressly

provide that a violation of the particular act or statute is deemed a per se

1. ME. STAT. tit. 5, §§ 205-A to 214.

2. Id. § 207.

3. Id. § 206(3).

4. Binette v. Dyer Library Ass’n, 688 A.2d 898, 907 (Me. 1996); see, e.g.,

Wuestenberg v. Rancourt, 226 A.3d 227, 232 (Me. 2020) (affirming

judgment for defendant sellers in dispute with buyers over the sale of

sellers’ personal home, though the sellers were in the business of buying

and selling houses, “because the trial court found that the sale of the house

was not related to the [sellers’] business”); Brown v. Compass Harbor Vill.

Condo. Ass’n, 229 A.3d 158, 162 (Me. 2020) (finding that potential

MUTPA violations “concern only the internal governance” of the

defendant condominium association and “therefore did not occur in the

conduct of trade or commerce”); State v. DeCoster, 653 A.2d 891, 895

(Me. 1995) (holding that disputes between employers and employees do

not implicate “trade or commerce” under MUPTA).

5. ME. STAT. tit. 10, §§ 1211 to 1216.

6. Id. § 1212(l)(L).