Legal Question in Business Law in California

Why on earth would it be fraud?

Fraud is usually defined as an intentional deception made for personal gain or to damage another individual. To win a civil action for fraud, the alleged victim (plaintiff) must show these factors: a representation of an existing fact; its materiality; its falsity; the speaker's knowledge of its falsity; the speaker's intent that it shall be acted upon by the plaintiff;

plaintiff's ignorance of its falsity; plaintiff's reliance on the truth of the representation; plaintiff's right to rely upon it; and consequent damages suffered by plaintiff.

Failure to disclose a material existing fact when a duty to disclose exists is treated about the same as a false representation.

It doesn't sound to me as though any harm was done here, nor was there any intent to deceive or harm anyone.