I’m going to take a brief detour from trade-secrets issues today, and instead wander in to the world of the Florida Deceptive and Unfair Trade Practices Act (FDUTPA). This statute, like many state consumer-protection laws, prohibits unfair trade practices, among other things.

Prior to this week, Florida courts have defined an unfair trade practice as one that is immoral, unethical, oppressive, unscrupulous, or substantially injurious to consumers. (The definition of consumer includes just about all individuals and business entities.) This broad standard allowed FDUTPA to serve as the Swiss Army Knife of claims, since it could apply to diverse types of bad acts. For example, I obtained a judgment for violating FDUTPA where my client’s former independent contractor started a competing business using my client’s proprietary information. (So there’s at least some connection between FDUTPA and trade secrets, since FDUTPA claims could be brought in a misappropriation action.)

But this week, in Porsche Cars North America, Inc. v. Peter Diamond, Florida’s Third District Court of Appeal changed the standard. Now, an unfair trade practice is one that causes injury to a consumer that (1) must be substantial, (2) must not be outweighed by any countervailing benefits to consumers or competition that the practice produces, and (3) must be an injury that the consumers could not reasonably have avoided.

This revised definition, and the third prong in particular, will make it more difficult to bring unfair-trade-practice claims.

As a result of this decision, there is now a district split on this issue. It will be interesting to see if this case gets appealed, and if so, whether the Florida Supreme Court settles the issue.