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CHAPTER 51
WISCONSIN
A. Scope of the Statute and Elements of a Cause of Action
Wisconsin’s laws prohibiting unfair methods of competition and
fraudulent representations in marketing are codified separately.
1. Unfair Methods of Competition and Unfair Trade Practices
The state’s Unfair Trade Practices Act (WUTPA)1 prohibits both
“unfair methods of competition in business” and “u nfair trade practices in
business.”2 However, the WUTPA does not distinguish between unfair
“methods of competition” and “unfair trade practices” and Wisconsin courts
do not appear to have addressed this issue. The WUTPA also b ans specific
“unfair ” practices, such as the maki ng of misrepresentations in
connection with a “close-out” sale and the comparison of a new motor
vehicle selling price to a manufacturer’s suggested retail price absent clear
and conspicuous disclosure that the latter price is a suggested, not actual,
price.3 The WUTPA also prohibits a person from providing “any service
which the person has the ability to withhold that facilitates or promotes
an unfair method of competition in business . . . an unfair trade practice
in business . . . or any other activity which is a violation of” the trade
practices chapter of the Wisconsin Statutes.4
The Wisconsin Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer
Protection (DATCP) is authorized to promulgate administrative rules of
general application, defining unfair methods of competition and unfair
trade practices under the WUTPA.5 These rules often address a specific
trade sector, such as home improvement services,6 manufactured home
communities,7 and residential rental practices.8 Other of these rules focus
on specific methods of marketing used in more than one trade area, such
1. WIS. STAT. § 100.20.
2. Id. § 100.20(1).
3. Id. §§ 100.18(3m), (10m); 100.20 (1m), (1r).
4. Id. § 100.20(1t).
5. Id. § 100.20(2). In the statute, administrative rules such as these are called
“general orders.”
6. WIS. ADMIN. CODE ATCP § 110.
7. Id. § 125.
8. Id. § 134.
