Opinion ID: 2708541
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Wisconsin Deceptive Trade Practices Claim

Text: Thermal Design alleges that ASHRAE violated the Wisconsin Deceptive Trade Practices Act, Wis. Stat. § 100.18, by publishing faulty performance U-factors in Standard 90.1 and that this conduct was intended to induce consumers to buy Thermal’s competitors’ products. To assert a claim under the act, Thermal must allege three elements: “(1) the defendant made a representation to the public with the intent to induce an obligation, (2) that the representation was untrue, deceptive or misleading, and (3) that the representation caused the plaintiff a pecuniary loss.” Novell v. Migliaccio, 749 N.W.2d 544, 552 (Wis. 2008) (internal quotation marks omitted). Thermal’s complaint alleges that two of the six members of the Envelope Subcommittee—who were acting as agents of ASHRAE rather than for their own employers—intentionally skewed the U-factors in order to benefit over-the-purlin systems. This in turn caused Thermal to suffer a pecuniary loss. Yet the purpose of section 100.18 is to “protect the residents of Wisconsin from any untrue, deceptive or misleading representations made to promote the sale of a product.” K&S Tool & Die Corp. v. Perfection Mach. Sales, Inc., 720 N.W.2d 507, 516 (Wis. Ct. App. 2006) (emphasis added) (quoting State v. Automatic Merch’rs of Am., Inc., 221 N.W.2d 683, 686 (Wis. 1974)); see also Novell, 720 N.W.2d at 550 (“This court and the court of appeals have made clear that the purpose of § 100.18 is to deter sellers from making false and misleading representations in order to 8 No. 13-2519 protect the public.”). More simply put, section 100.18 “applies by its terms to commercial transactions.” Slane v. Emoto, 582 F. Supp. 2d 1067, 1083 (W.D. Wis. 2008) (emphasis added). ASHRAE is not in the business of selling insulation systems such that it would benefit from Standard 90.1; it is merely a standards-setting organization comprised of numerous members that have an interest in the standards themselves. Moreover, nowhere in the 200 pages published by ASHRAE is it suggested that consumers choose one product over another. ASHRAE’s actions were not part of a commercial transaction. Thermal’s interpretation of the act would render liable any standards-setting organization so long as a manufacturer could show that it lost sales as a result of allegedly inaccurate technical data. Nothing in the act supports such a broad understanding. Accordingly, its Deceptive Trade Practices Act claim must fail.