Firm News

Wiggin and Dana’s Robert M. Langer, a senior counsel in the firm’s Hartford office and co-chair of the firm’s Antitrust and Consumer Protection Practice Group, and New Haven Partner, Kim E. Rinehart, chair of the firm’s Class Action Defense Practice Group, have co-authored the 2022-2023 Edition of “Connecticut Unfair Trade Practices, Business Torts and Antitrust,” Vol. 12 of the Connecticut Practice Series, just released via Westlaw by publisher Thomson Reuters. 

Over the years, the scope of the book has been expanded to include an extensive treatment of business torts and the Connecticut Antitrust Act. The authors have sought to provide some insight into the relationship between CUTPA, the Federal Trade Commission Act and the unfair trade practice acts of other states. They have also made available a number of practical aids, including a model complaint, model jury instructions, a list of state statutes referencing CUTPA and charts listing the analogous statutes in each state, as well as key components of each such statute, including how each state interprets unfairness and deception.

The 2022-2023 edition, which is almost 2000 pages in length, highlights several important recent developments, including: (a) a discussion of the manner in which the litigation privilege in certain instances may apply to CUTPA and/or Connecticut Unfair Insurance Practices Act (“CUIPA”) claims; (b) a new list of statutes which declare certain types of insurance conduct to be per se unfair; (c) an important development in which the Second Circuit in Lewis v. M&T Bank held that a CUTPA claim is barred by the filed-rate doctrine; (d) the passage of new Connecticut public acts regarding data privacy and online monitoring, as well as surcharges based on the type of payment method, which expressly provide that a violation of said laws constitutes a violation of CUTPA; (e) a substantial revision to the appendices that identify the deception and the unfairness methodologies utilized by every state and the District of Columbia; and (f) a significant new policy statement by the Federal Trade Commission entitled, “Policy Statement Regarding the Scope of Unfair Methods of Competition Under Section 5 of the Federal Trade Commission Act.”

Mr. Langer co-authored the original treatise in 1994. Co-authors are the late David L. Belt, past member of Hurwitz, Sagarin, Slossberg & Knuff LLC, and Quinnipiac University School of Law Professor Emeritus, John T. Morgan.

Mr. Langer and Ms. Rinehart extend their gratitude to their Wiggin and Dana colleagues, Ana Oman, Douglas Apicella, Lisa Weeden and Nestor Rodriguez Smyt for their invaluable assistance.