California Supreme Court Opens Door To Organizational Unfair Competition Law Claims

• Published date: 19 July 2023
• Law Firm: Allen Matkins Leck Gamble Mallory & Natsis LLP
• Author: Mr Keith P. Bishop

Sections 17200 to 17210 of the California Business and Professions Code are commonly referred to as the unfair competition law. Stop Youth Addiction, Inc., v. Lucky Stores, Inc.,17 Cal.4th 553, 558, fn. 2 (1998). The UCL law, however, is not narrowly limited to competition, it defines "unfair competition," to "include any unlawful, unfair or fraudulent business act or practice." Cal. Bus. & Prof. Code ' 17200 (emphasis added). The voters tempered the broad scope of the law somewhat by approving an initiative measure, Proposition 64, that...