Law / United States / 
Massachusetts
Unfair or deceptive acts or practices (predicate vehicle for scraping claims)
Mass. Gen. Laws ch. 93A, §§ 2, 9
In force.
An unfair competition rule binding private bodies.
- Audit expectation
- none
What it requires
- A scraping practice that is separately unfair or deceptive in trade or commerce, such as deceptively circumventing a site's access controls, can expose you to a private chapter 93A claim even where no other Massachusetts statute arms a private plaintiff.
- A willful or knowing violation exposes you to up to three, but not less than two, times the actual damages found.
These lines are LexLint's reading of the law's text.
If you get it wrong
Criminal exposureNo
Private right of actionYes
Penalty structure
Section 4 lets the court require a person who knew or should have known that an act or practice violated section 2 to pay the Commonwealth a civil penalty of not more than $5,000 for each violation. A person who violates the terms of an injunction or other order issued under section 4 forfeits a civil penalty of not more than $10,000 for each violation.
- Rule
- Per violation only
- As of
- Currency
- USD
- Per violation unit
- Violation
- Per violation amount
- 5,000
Statutory damages
Section 9(3): a successful petitioner recovers actual damages or $25, whichever is greater, and up to three but not less than two times that amount for a willful or knowing violation or a bad-faith refusal to grant relief on demand. Section 9(2) permits a class action on behalf of numerous similarly injured persons.
- As of
- Currency
- USD
- Per person minimum
- 25
- Class action available
- Yes
Who enforces it
Enforcement body
The Attorney General, by an action for an injunction and civil penalties under chapter 93A, section 4; injured persons sue privately under sections 9 and 11.
Settledness
- As of
- Open questions
- Does an automated collection of publicly available web data in breach of a site's terms of use amount to an "unfair or deceptive act or practice" in "the conduct of any trade or commerce" under chapter 93A, section 2(a)?
- Does a scraping plaintiff that is itself engaged in trade or commerce sue under section 11 rather than section 9, given that section 9(1) excludes a "person entitled to bring action under section eleven"?
What it reaches
Obligation class
Prohibition
Applicability criteria
- As of
- Combinator
- All of
- Criteria
- in the conduct of any trade or commerce
What it makes you log
Logging duty
Section 2 declares unfair and deceptive acts and practices in trade or commerce unlawful and lets the Attorney General make interpretive rules; section 9 gives an injured person a civil action. Neither requires a log or record. Section 9 lifts the demand-letter step where the respondent keeps no place of business or assets in the Commonwealth, which is a procedural condition and not a test for the reach of the chapter, so no hook is recorded.
- Kind
- None
- As of
What this law does
Section 2 declares unfair methods of competition and unfair or deceptive acts or practices in trade or commerce unlawful, directing courts to be guided by FTC Act Section 5 interpretations, the same federal standard chapter 93A imports. Section 9 arms any person injured by such conduct with a private civil action for damages and equitable relief, including an injunction. A willful or knowing violation exposes the defendant to up to three, but not less than two, times the actual damages found.
Section 2 was inserted by chapter 813 of the Acts of 1967. Chapter 813 was approved , and carries no effective-date clause or emergency preamble of its own. Section 9 was added by chapter 690 of the Acts of 1969. Chapter 690 was approved , and carries no effective-date clause or emergency preamble of its own.
Article XLVIII of the Amendments to the Massachusetts Constitution bars such a law from taking effect earlier than ninety days after it becomes law, and no source states the day either took effect. The sections this entry groups came into force on different days.
When LexLint raises it
When your app profile says your app crawls the web.
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