{"id":57499,"date":"2024-07-25T19:51:00","date_gmt":"2024-07-25T19:51:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.dinsmore.com\/?post_type=publications&#038;p=57499"},"modified":"2025-11-24T18:35:00","modified_gmt":"2025-11-24T18:35:00","slug":"pennsylvania-supreme-court-to-consider-potential-expansion-of-business-liability-under-utpcpl","status":"publish","type":"publications","link":"https:\/\/www.dinsmore.com\/publications\/pennsylvania-supreme-court-to-consider-potential-expansion-of-business-liability-under-utpcpl\/","title":{"rendered":"Pennsylvania Supreme Court to Consider Potential Expansion of Business Liability Under UTPCPL"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.dinsmore.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/UTPCPL-Header.jpg\" alt=\"\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>The Pennsylvania Supreme Court will soon hear arguments in a case that may have far reaching implications for businesses facing consumer protection claims in the state.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Court has granted allocator in <em>Halpern v. Ricoh U.S.A., Inc.<\/em><a href=\"#_ftn1\" id=\"_ftnref1\">[1]<\/a> to determine whether violations of the Pennsylvania Unfair Trade Practices and Consumer Protection Law (\u201cUTPCPL\u201d) arise when a business fails to divulge information to a consumer that they otherwise had no affirmative duty to disclose to the consumer or the general public.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>For more than fifty years, the UTPCPL has prohibited unfair methods of competition and unfair or deceptive acts or practices in consumer relationships.&nbsp; In that time, Pennsylvania courts have never interpreted the UTPCPL to affirmatively require disclosure of information unless the business had an underlying duty to disclose said information.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Rather, in interpreting the UTPCPL\u2019s \u201ccatch-all\u201d provision, the Pennsylvania Superior Court has consistently held that businesses are not liable for failing to disclose potential defects absent some affirmative, underlying duty to act. <em>See Romeo v. Pittsburgh Assocs.<\/em>, 787 A.2d 1027 (Pa.&nbsp;Super.&nbsp;Ct. 2001). The <em>Halpern <\/em>court reaffirmed this application of the \u201cno-duty\u201d rule when they held that Ricoh did not violate the \u201ccatch-all\u201d of the UTPCPL provision because they had no common-law duty to disclose any potential defects in their manufactured cameras to their consumers.<a href=\"#_ftn2\" id=\"_ftnref2\">[2]<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In granting allocator, the Supreme Court has agreed to consider whether it should overrule <em>Romeo<\/em>\u2019s holding \u201cthat a deceptive omission under the [UTPCPL] is actionable only if a vendor had an affirmative duty to disclose a defect in a good or service.\u201d<a href=\"#_ftn3\" id=\"_ftnref3\">[3]<\/a> If the Supreme Court overturns the Superior Court\u2019s holding in <em>Romeo<\/em> and its progeny, businesses may face a much broader scope of liability under the UTPCPL.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>We will continue to keep you posted on any developments, as this decision could have broad ramifications on Pennsylvania\u2019s consumer protection laws and the disclosure obligations of businesses moving forward.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"#_ftnref1\" id=\"_ftn1\">[1]<\/a> 299 A.3d 1023 (Pa. Super. 2023), appeal granted, No. 263 EAL 2023, 2024 Pa. LEXIS 306 (Feb. 27, 2024).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"#_ftnref2\" id=\"_ftn2\">[2]<\/a> <em>Halpern v. Ricoh U.S.A., Inc<\/em>., 299 A.3d 1023, 1029\u201330 (Pa. Super. 2023).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"#_ftnref3\" id=\"_ftn3\">[3]<\/a> <em>Halpern v. Ricoh U.S.A., Inc<\/em>., No. 263 EAL 2023, 2024 Pa. LEXIS 306 (Feb. 27, 2024).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Pennsylvania Supreme Court will soon hear arguments in a case that may have far reaching implications for businesses facing consumer protection claims in the state. The Court has granted allocator in Halpern v. Ricoh U.S.A., Inc.[1] to determine whether violations of the Pennsylvania Unfair Trade Practices and Consumer Protection Law (\u201cUTPCPL\u201d) arise when a\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"menu_order":0,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"publication-type":[12],"class_list":["post-57499","publications","type-publications","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","publication-type-legal-alerts"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.5 (Yoast SEO v26.9) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Pennsylvania Supreme Court to Consider Potential Expansion of Business Liability Under UTPCPL - Dinsmore &amp; Shohl<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Pennsylvania Supreme Court to Consider Potential Expansion of Business Liability Under UTPCPL Read insights and legal analysis from attorneys at Dinsmore &amp; Shohl LLP.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.dinsmore.com\/publications\/pennsylvania-supreme-court-to-consider-potential-expansion-of-business-liability-under-utpcpl\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Pennsylvania Supreme Court to Consider Potential Expansion of Business Liability Under UTPCPL\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Pennsylvania Supreme Court to Consider Potential Expansion of Business Liability Under UTPCPL Read insights and legal analysis from attorneys at Dinsmore &amp; 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