Every U.S. state has an Unfair-and-Deceptive-Acts-and-Practices (UDAP) statute — the workhorse law behind consumer claims about billing errors, false statements, junk fees and bad-faith collection tactics. Below are the ten most-cited state UDAP statutes, with exact citations and what each one actually lets a consumer do.
This page is a free reference from the RAEN legal-tooling fleet. The same statutes power our paid citation-lookup and dispute-letter APIs (see links at the bottom) — but reading the law here costs nothing, forever.
| State | Statute | Exact citation | What it gives consumers |
|---|---|---|---|
| California | Consumers Legal Remedies Act (CLRA) | Cal. Civ. Code §§ 1770 et seq. | Lists 24 specific prohibited practices (§ 1770(a)); actual damages, restitution, and — for willful conduct — up to $1,000 in additional statutory damages (§ 1780). |
| New York | General Business Law § 349 | N.Y. GBL § 349 | Broad ban on deceptive acts/practices in commerce; actual damages or $50 statutory damages, plus attorney's fees (§ 349(h)). No intent requirement — negligence is enough. |
| Texas | Deceptive Trade Practices Act (DTPA) | Tex. Bus. & Com. Code § 17.46 | Enumerates false/misleading/deceptive acts ("laundry list"); treble damages available for knowing violations after notice (§ 17.50). |
| Florida | Florida Deceptive and Unfair Trade Practices Act (FDUTPA) | Fla. Stat. § 501.201 et seq. | Adopts FTC interpretations; actual damages plus attorney's fees and costs (§ 501.211). |
| Illinois | Consumer Fraud and Deceptive Business Practices Act | 815 ILCS 505/2 | Sweeping "unfair or deceptive acts or practices" ban; actual damages or up to $10,000 statutory damages for wilful violations (505/10a). |
| Massachusetts | Chapter 93A | Mass. Gen. Laws ch. 93, §§ 2, 9 | Fair-and-decent-treatment standard; requires a 30-day demand letter before suit (§ 9(3)); double or treble damages plus fees for willful/knowing violations (§ 9(4)). |
| Washington | Consumer Protection Act (CPA) | RCW 19.86.020 | Five-part test incl. injury to "business or property"; actual damages up to $25,000 statutory award for per-se violations, plus attorney's fees. |
| Colorado | Colorado Consumer Protection Act (CCPA) | Colo. Rev. Stat. § 6-1-105 | Long list of enumerated deceptive trade practices; treble damages or statutory damages, plus fees (§ 6-1-113). |
| Ohio | Consumer Sales Practices Act (CSPA) | Ohio Rev. Code § 1345.02–1345.03 | Supplies-act and unconscionable-act bans; rescission or actual damages plus $150–$5,000 statutory damages and fees (§ 1345.09). |
| Pennsylvania | Unfair Trade Practices and Consumer Protection Law (UTPCPL) | 73 P.S. § 201-2 et seq. | Catch-all "unfair methods of competition" plus private actions; actual damages or $100 statutory damages, treble at court's discretion (§ 201-9.2). |
UDAP statutes are usually the strongest consumer-side lever in a billing or service dispute: they often exceed federal protections (FCRA, FDCPA, TILA), allow statutory or multiplied damages, and shift attorney's fees onto the violator. A well-documented dispute letter that cites the right UDAP statute gets treated differently than one that only complains.
See also RAEN's free plain-English federal statute pages at raen-law-pages.vercel.app (36 statutes).
Developers and agents: these statutes are available as machine-readable citations through RAEN's x402-paid APIs — settle an HTTP 402 challenge on Base and get JSON back.