Opinion ID: 1536518
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: The Consumer Protection Law

Text: We next turn to Toy's second issue, which is whether the Superior Court erred in holding that justifiable reliance is an element of her Consumer Protection Law claims. This issue concerns the meaning of 73 P.S. § 201-9.2, the provision in the Consumer Protection Law that creates a private right of action. Section 201-9.2 states in relevant part that any person who purchases or leases goods or services primarily for personal, family or household purposes and thereby suffers an ascertainable loss of money or property, real or personal, as a result of the use or employment by any person of a method, act or practice declared unlawful by section 3 of this act. 73 P.S. § 201-9.2. Toy contends that as a matter of statutory construction, the phrase as a result of in § 201-9.2 requires her to establish nothing more than a causal connection between her loss and Defendants' unlawful behavior, not justifiable reliance, as the Superior Court concluded. Toy's position is premised on the contention that the Superior Court incorrectly relied on this Court's decision in Weinberg for its conclusion. While Toy does not dispute that under Pennsylvania law, justifiable reliance is an element of common law fraud, see Gibbs v. Ernst, 538 Pa. 193, 647 A.2d 882, 889 (1994), she argues that Weinberg does not state that the Consumer Protection Law requires that a private party prove it. Rather, all Weinberg states is that a private party must prove reliance. Since under the law, reliance can mean reasonable reliance or justifiable reliance or bare reliance in fact, see Field v. Mans, 516 U.S. 59, 116 S.Ct. 437, 133 L.Ed.2d 351 (1995), Toy argues that the level of reliance she must prove under the Consumer Protection Law has yet to be settled, and urges this Court to hold that only the lowest level of reliance is required of her in order to impose liability under the Consumer Protection Law on the Defendants. Toy is mistaken. Our decision in Weinberg did indeed settle that justifiable reliance is an element of the claims Toy brought under the Consumer Protection Law. In Weinberg, the plaintiffs brought a class action against Sun Oil Company (Sun) under the Consumer Protection Law alleging that certain television and radio advertisements Sun had broadcasted about the gasoline it was selling were misleading and in violation of 73 P.S. § 201-2(4)(v), (vii), (ix), and (xvii). [19] While the plaintiffs proposed a class that was limited to consumers who had purchased Sun gasoline, it was not limited to those consumers who had relied on the ads in making their purchasing decisions. At the class certification hearing, the plaintiffs took the position that under the Consumer Protection Law, reliance on Sun's allegedly deceptive ads need not be shown by each member of the class before the class could be certified. Sun countered that under the statute, individual detrimental reliance on the ads and causation must be shown, and that this requirement would render class certification inappropriate. The trial court agreed with Sun and denied class certification. Weinberg, 777 A.2d at 444. The Superior Court, however, disagreed. Following its reasoning in its prior decision, DiLucido v. Terminix International, Inc., 450 Pa.Super. 393, 676 A.2d 1237 (1996), the Superior Court determined that while the claims plaintiffs brought under § 201-2(4)(vii) and the catchall at § 201-2(4)(xvii) were fraud-based and required proof of the traditional elements of common law fraud, the claims they brought under § 201-2(4)(v) and § 201-2(4)(ix) for false advertising, were different and did not require a showing of reliance. 777 A.2d at 444-45. Accordingly, the Superior Court affirmed the trial court in part and reversed the trial court in part. Id. This Court granted allocatur to Sun, and in a unanimous decision, rejected the Superior Court's conclusion that the Consumer Protection Law did not require plaintiffs to prove the traditional elements of common law fraud in all of their claims. Id. at 446-47. We determined that the Superior Court's view of the Consumer Protection Law, which the court had previously articulated in DiLucido, was erroneous because it was premised on the considerations that guide the Attorney General when he is pursuing an enforcement action. Id. at 445-46. Construing the language in 73 P.S. § 201-9.2, which provides for a private right of action, and differentiating it from the language in 73 P.S. § 201-4, which authorizes Commonwealth officials to act in the public interest, we reiterated that `the [Consumer Protection Law's] underlying foundation is fraud prevention[,]' and held that [n]othing in the legislative history [of the Consumer Protection Law] suggests that the legislature ever intended statutory language directed against consumer fraud to do away with the traditional common law elements of reliance and causation. 777 A.2d at 466 and n. 1 (quoting Commonwealth v. Monumental Properties, Inc., 459 Pa. 450, 329 A.2d 812, 816 (1974), and citing Legislative Journal: House of Representatives, 1975 Sess. vol. 1, no. 63, at 2149-60, 2180-82 (July 16, 1975) (remarks upon final House passage); Legislative Journal: Senate, 1976 Sess. vol. 1, no. 114, at 1197-98 (June 28, 1976) (remarks upon final Senate passage)). Accordingly, we concluded that all of the plaintiffs' claims incorporated the traditional elements of common law fraud of reliance and causation. Id. at 446. As the type of reliance that a plaintiff alleging common law fraud must prove is justifiable reliance, see Gibbs, 647 A.2d at 889, Weinberg necessarily states that a plaintiff alleging violations of the Consumer Protection Law must prove justifiable reliance. See Yocca v. Pittsburgh Steelers Sports, Inc., 578 Pa. 479, 854 A.2d 425 (2004) (confirming that Weinberg held that justifiable reliance was required of Consumer Protection Law plaintiffs). Therefore, under Weinberg we hold that justifiable reliance is an element of Toy's Consumer Protection Law claims. [20]