Civil Jury Instructions Home

5.2-2  CUTPA - Conduct of Trade or Commerce    

Revised to January 1, 2008

As the first step in deciding whether the defendant violated CUTPA, you must first determine whether the defendant's actions were carried out in the course of (his/her/its) trade or commerce.  An action is carried out in the defendant's trade or commerce if it is part of <include only those terms applicable to the facts of the case:>

• the advertising,

• the sale or rent or lease,

• the offering for sale or rent or lease, or

• the distribution

of any services and any property, tangible or intangible, real, personal or mixed, and any other article, commodity, or thing of value in Connecticut.  The conduct at issue must occur in the defendant's primary trade or business; it must not be merely incidental to the defendant's trade or business.  If you do not find that the conduct occurred in the defendant's trade or commerce, you must find that there was no CUTPA violation.

Authority

General Statutes § 42-110a (4); McCann Real Equities Series XXII, LLC v. David McDermott Chevrolet, Inc., 93 Conn. App. 486, 523, cert denied, 277 Conn. 928 (2006) ("CUTPA violation may not be alleged for activities that are incidental to an entity's primary trade or commerce").