HARRISBURG – State Attorney General Josh Shapiro will be allowed to pursue his lawsuit against oil companies being sued for unfair trade practices.
Judge Ellen Ceisler, on the bench of the Commonwealth Court, wrote a 31-page ruling issued on March 15, affirming and reversing in part the Court of Common Pleas of Bradford County in Shapiro's case against Chesapeake Energy and Anadarko Petroleum.
The court confirmed the decision of allowing the Commonwealth to pursue charges of violation of the Unfair Trade Practices and Consumer Protection Law (UTPCPL), given that the antitrust claims the attorney general is pursuing qualified as unfair competition or deceptive practices.
Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro
The oil companies claimed the lower court erred in allowing the attorney general to pursue UTPCPL charges against them.
"According to appellants, since they merely leased subsurface mineral rights from private landowners, they were not selling or distributing anything and consequently, the UTPCPL does not apply to their conduct, as the lease transactions do not satisfy the statutory definition of ‘trade or commerce,'" Ceisler wrote.
"Instead, appellants contend that the UTPCPL is designed to only protect consumers against the underhanded behavior of sellers, rather than all parties to a given transaction."
In her ruling, Ceisler stated that the companies' claims of leases of lands were considered sales, and therefore fit the definition of the law.
"Contrary to appellants’ desired conclusion, we find that their conduct in relation to the aforementioned leases constitutes 'trade’ and ‘commerce,' as those terms are understood in the context of the law," she wrote.
"As we have already noted, Section 2(3) of the UTPCPL states that ‘trade’ and ‘commerce’ mean 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 wherever situate, and includes any trade or commerce directly or indirectly affecting the people of this Commonwealth.
"Per this statutory language, and our case law, these leases were, in essence, sales. The Pennsylvania Supreme Court recognized long ago that residential leases are functionally equivalent to a property sale in many ways, and that residential leases fall within the scope of ‘trade’ and ‘commerce’ under the UTPCPL."
The Pennsylvania Commonwealth Court Case No. is 58 C.D. 2018.