Orion Flight Services, Inc. v. Basler Flight Service

1. This case involves a dispute between Orion Flight Services, Inc. and Basler Flight Service, A Division of Basler Turbo Conversions, LLC, two vendors of aviation fuel, about whether the Unfair Sales Act requires Basler to set minimum prices in accordance with the Unfair Sales Act's minimum markup provisions for motor vehicle fuel. They also dispute whether Orion has a private cause of action against Basler for not following those provisions. We conclude that the markup and private cause of action provisions do not apply because the legislature did not understand ""motor vehicle fuel"" to include aviation fuel. The legislature intended these provisions to protect small businesses from being run out of business by the predatory pricing practices of large competitors. ""Mom and pop"" establishments simply are not in the business of selling fuel for use in aircraft. Moreover, closely-related statutes exclude aircraft from the definition of ""motor vehicles."" We therefore reverse the circuit court's preliminary injunction forcing Basler to sell at marked-up costs and dismiss Orion's complaint. 2. Pursuant to a lease with Winnebago county, Basler has sold aviation fuel at Wittman Regional Airport in Oshkosh, Wisconsin since 1957. It is a fixed base operator (FBO), a vendor of services at an airport or airfield. Basler sells Jet A fuel and 100 LL aviation fuel. It operates a self-service pump as well as a fleet of trucks that travel to aircraft for refueling.