The NAM filed an amicus brief arguing that the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania should reject the state Attorney General's attempt to create new antitrust causes of action and remedies through Pennsylvania's Unfair Trade Practices and Consumer Protection Law (UTPCPL). The Attorney General filed a lawsuit on behalf of certain Pennsylvania landowners alleging that Chesapeake and Anadarko committed antitrust violations and engaged in other deceptive and misleading conduct in relation to the procurement of natural gas leases. Both the trial and appellate courts allowed the case to proceed even though antitrust violations had never been considered actionable under the UTPCPL and the Pennsylvania General Assembly had repeatedly considered and declined to pass antitrust legislation. The NAM’s amicus brief argued that matters of public policy and the creation of causes of action and remedies are within the exclusive domain of the legislature and that by its plain language, the UTPCPL does not include antitrust causes of action nor permit antitrust remedies. The brief further explained that allowing the AG to maintain this lawsuit threatened to create a chilling effect for the business community in Pennsylvania.
Happily, on March 24, 2021, while failing to reach the antitrust issues presented, the court ruled 6-1 that the UTPCPL cannot be applied to regulate the conduct of energy exploration companies in obtaining gas leases from property owners.