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CHAPTER 38
OKLAHOMA
A. Scope of the Statute and Elements of a Cause of Action
Oklahoma has enacted two statutes that protect consumers from unfair
and deceptive business practices. The Oklahoma Consumer Protection Act
(OCPA)1 was enacted to “provid[e] for p rotection to buyers against fraud
and certain other practices by sellers.”2 The Oklahoma Deceptive Trade
Practices Act (ODTPA)3 was enacted in 1965 and focuses on deceptive
business practices that cause injury to competitors,4 but many of its
prohibitions substantially overlap with those in the OCPA.
1. The Oklahoma Consumer Protection Act
The OCPA lists thirty-one different activities that are deemed
unlawful when performed in the course of a person’s business,5 including,
among other things, falsely representing that the subject of a consumer
transaction6 is of a particular make or brand,7 representing reconditioned
or secondhand products as new,8 advertising the subject of a consumer
transaction with the intent not to sell it as advertised,9 employing “bait and
1. OKLA. STAT. tit. 15, §§ 751–769.
2. Id. § 751.
3. Id. tit. 78, §§ 51–56.
4. See id. § 53(B) (declaring that evidence that a person engaged in any of the
enumerated deceptive trade practices “shall be prima facie evid ence of
intent to injure competitors and to destroy or substantially lessen
competition”); see also Conatzer v. Am. Mercury Ins. Co., 15 P.3d 1252,
1254 (Okla. Civ. App. 2000).
5. In the OCPA, “person” is defined as “a natural person, corporation, trust,
partnership, incorporated or unincorporated association, or any other legal
entity.” OKLA. STAT. tit. 15, § 752(1).
6. The OCPA defines a “consumer transaction” as “the advertising, offering
for sale or purchase, sale, purchase, or distribution of any services or any
property, tangible or intangible, real, personal, or mixed, or any other
article, commodity, or thing of value wherever located, for purposes that
are personal, household, or business oriented.” Id. § 752(2).
7. Id. § 753(1).
8. Id. § 753(6).
9. Id. § 753(8).
