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CHAPTER 46
UTAH
A. Scope of the Statute and Elements of a Cause of Action
The Utah Consumer Sales Practices Act (UCSPA), which is spread
out over twenty-six separate subsections of the Utah state code, prohibits
deceptive acts and practices in connection with consumer transactions.1
Utah’s legislature continues to expand the definition of deceptive acts and
practices to include charges, or portions of charges,2 for a consumer
transaction3 that a consumer has not previously agreed to and
1. UTAH CODE ANN. §§ 13-11-4(2)(a)-(z). As required under Utah law,
deceptive acts and practices must be committed “knowingly or
intentionally.” Cannon v. Countrywide Bank, 2011 WL 1885412, at *3 (D.
Utah 2011); accord Kee v. R-G Crown Bank, 656 F. Supp. 2d 1348, 1355
(D. Utah 2009); see Midland Funding LLC v. Sotolongo, 325 P.3d 871,
881 (Utah Ct. App 2014); see also Nuss v. Utah Orthopaedic Assocs., 2011
WL 3328708, at *5 (D. Utah 2011) (stating that a dec eptive act or practice
must be committed knowingly or intentionally and “an attempt to collect a
debt is [not] deceptive or unconscionable simply because the debt is
contested”). But see Hilgenberg v. Elggren & Peterson, 2015 WL 4077765,
at *8 (D. Utah 2015) (holding evidence of debt collector law firm placing
significant pressure on the plaintiff without disclosing firm name or nature
of repeated telephone calls created genuine issue of material fact to defe at
summary judgment on element of intentional conduct).
2. Attempting to collect an owed debt does not amount to a charge for
purposes of the UCSPA. See Reed v. Afni, Inc., 2011 WL 112430, at *3
(D. Utah 2011).
3. A consumer transaction is “a sale, lease, assignment, award by change, or
other written or oral transfer or disposition of goods, services, or other
property, both tangible and intangible (except securities and insurance).”
UTAH CODE ANN. § 13-11-3(2)(a). Typically, mortgage loans do not fall
within this definition “as it is not a sale or disposition of the funds or of the
note.” Ayala v. Am. Home Mortg. Servicing, 2011 WL 3319543, at *3 (D.
Utah 2011); see Gonzalez v. Wells Fargo Bank, 2013 WL 2 456397, at *2
(D. Utah 2013).
