Businesses accused by state or local authorities of false advertising or unfair business practices are not entitled to a jury trial, the California Supreme Court ruled Thursday. Violations of the state’s False Advertising Law and Unfair Competition Law can carry substantial civil penalties — potentially many billions of dollars in this case, according to the accused company, a debt payment service. But while both businesses and individuals are entitled to a jury determination of ordinary claims for damages, the court said disputes under these two business laws involve complex questions of fairness and equity that are traditionally decided by judges in non-jury trials. Deciding whether a business practice was deceptive to consumers or unfair to competitors requires “judicial experience and familiarity with the treatment of (comparable) business practices here and elsewhere,” Chief Justice Tani Cantil-Sakauye said in the majority opinion. Such a decision, she said, “does not typically involve the type of ordinary fact-finding assigned to a jury.” For example, she said, a past case involved a dispute over whether a cereal company had falsely advertised sugary products as “healthful and nutritious,” a question that was properly decided in a non-jury trial. Before a lower-court decision in this case, Cantil-Sakauye… Read full this story
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