Definitions

As used in this chapter:

(a)Business consumer means an individual, partnership or corporation who seeks or acquires by purchase or lease, any goods or services for commercial or business use. The term does not include the government of Guam.

(b)Consumer goods means tangible goods purchased primarily for personal use or for use in the home or on a farm.

(c)Consumer services means services purchased primarily for personal use or for use in the home or on a farm or to build, repair, maintain or enhance consumer goods. COL10/29/2021 CH. 32 TRADE PRACTICES AND CONSUMER PROTECTION

(d)Consumer means an individual, partnership, association, corporation, or the government of Guam who seeks or acquires by purchase or lease, any goods or services, except that the term does not include a business consumer that has assets of Twenty-Five Million Dollars ($25,000,000) or more, or that is owned or controlled by a corporation or entity with assets of Twenty-Five Million Dollars ($25,000,000) or more.

(e)Developer is a person who builds or who hires another to build new homes or buildings or condominium units for sale, as provided in this subsection. Any person who, during the three

(3)years preceding the enactment of this chapter, built or ordered built, had under construction, or offered for sale three

(3)or more new homes, new buildings, or new condominium units, or any combination thereof involving three

(3)or more new homes, new buildings, or new condominium units, in which the person had an equity interest, is a developer for purposes of this section. If any member of a partnership meets the definition of a developer, all partners are developers. If any officer or director or majority shareholder of a corporation meets the definition of a developer, the corporation is a developer. If the spouse of any person meets the definition of developer, both husband and wife are developers. Developer does not include lending institutions acting in good faith and not having an equity position in the new home or project. It does not include licensed real estate brokers and their salesmen not having an equity position in the new home, buildings, or condominium units, and who disclosed to the consumer all defects therein then known to them.

(f)Documentary material includes the original or a copy of any book, record, report, memorandum, paper, communication, tabulation, map, chart, photograph, mechanical transcription, or other tangible document or recording, wherever situated.

(g)Goods means tangible chattels, real property, land, buildings, homes or condominiums built, purchased or leased for use, investment or resale. Goods also includes stocks, COL10/29/2021 CH. 32 TRADE PRACTICES AND CONSUMER PROTECTION bonds, and securities purchased for investment or resale, funeral plans, annuities, retirement plans, and insurance policies purchased for the protection of a person or property.

(h)Home means any building constructed for human habitation, including houses, apartment buildings, time share units, and condominiums. It includes homes built on leasehold property having a term, including all options to renew, in excess of twenty-five

(25)years.

(i)Knowingly means actual awareness of the falsity, deception, or unfairness of the act or practice giving rise to the consumer’s claim. Actual awareness may be inferred where objective manifestations indicate that a person acted with actual awareness.

(j)Merchant means a person who deals in goods or services of the kind involved in the transaction or otherwise by his occupation or statements holds himself out as having knowledge or skill peculiar to the practices, services or goods involved in the transaction or to whom such knowledge or skill may be attributed by his employment of an agent or broker or other intermediary who by his occupation holds himself out as having such knowledge or skills In addition, a person who purports to be a merchant or holds himself out as a merchant is a merchant for purposes of this section.

(k)Non-business consumer is a consumer who purchases goods or services primarily for personal use or use in the home or on a farm.

(l)Person means an individual, partnership, corporation, association, or other group, however organized.

(m)Retail sale means the purchase of goods or services by an end user.

(n)Sale and purchase include in reference to the sale or purchase of goods and services the leasing or rental of property, but do not include short term rentals of real property or leases of real property of ten

(10)years or less. COL10/29/2021 CH. 32 TRADE PRACTICES AND CONSUMER PROTECTION

(o)Services means work, labor, or service purchased or leased for use, including but not limited to services furnished in connection with the sale or repair of goods.

(p)Trade and commerce mean the advertising, offering for sale, sale, lease, or distribution of any good or service, of any property, tangible or intangible, real, personal, or mixed, and any other article, commodity, or thing of value, wherever situated, and shall include any trade or commerce directly or indirectly affecting the people of Guam.

(q)Unconscionable action or course of action means an act or practice which is perpetrated by a person in the course of business in the retail sale of consumer goods or services to the detriment of a non-business consumer and which:

(1)Takes advantage of the lack of knowledge, ability, experience, or capacity of a person to a grossly unfair degree; or

(2)Results in a gross disparity between the value received and consideration paid, in a transaction involving the transfer of consideration.

(r)Used in reference to tangible goods means tangible goods whose value is diminished because the goods are used, second hand, rebuilt, or reconditioned.

(s)Disaster means any typhoon, flood, high water, wind-driven water, tidal wave, tsunami, earthquake, volcanic eruption, landslide, mudslide, drought, fire, explosion, or other catastrophic event that causes a state of emergency as declared by I Magaʹhågan or Magaʹlåhen Guåhan and may require emergency assistance to save lives, or to protect property, public health and safety, or to avert an emergency.