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 Proposition 64 - Limit on Private Enforcement of Unfair Business Competition Laws
Here is a synopsis to help fully understand how this law affects you and how its abolishment will affect you and other consumers.
WHAT THE UNFAIR BUSINESS COMPETITION LAW (UBCL) DOES NOW:
- It protects public health and the environment.
- It is California's key consumer protection statute.
- It's been used to punish polluters, stop misleading advertising, prevent religious discrimination and put a stop to unscrupulous financing schemes.
Lawsuits filed under UBCL, 17200 have:
- Stopped oil companies from polluting drinking water.
- Halted false advertising on raw milk.
- Blocked tobacco billboards near schools.
- Forced bottled-water companies to remove illegal levels of arsenic and bacteria.
- Stopped a supermarket chain from changing expiration dates and reselling old meat.
- Rid apartment buildings of lead paint.
WHAT WILL PASSAGE OF PROPOSITION 64 DO?
- Make it more difficult for individuals to file lawsuits to halt illegal and unfair business practices.
- Eliminate lawsuits that are currently filed in order to prevent an injury or harm from happening.
- Eliminate almost all cases to protect the environment since most involve water, air or earth pollution, not lost money or property.
- Mandate that only government prosecutors--not public interest organizations or institutional plaintiffs--can sue companies when they engage in practices prohibited under the UBCL.
- Stipulate that in the future the proposed initiative cannot be amended by the legislature under any circumstances, even to further its purposes.
WHO'S BEHIND PROPOSITION 64?
- The primary backer is the California Chamber of Commerce.
- Financial supporters include corporations like Microsoft, Nike, Intel, Oracle, General Motors, Bank of America, Blue Cross, Safeway, Citigroup and State Farm-all companies that have been targets of lawsuits filed under UBCL, 17200. Combined, they have raised $13 million to promote this campaign.
- The largest single financial backer is the California Motor Car Dealers Association.
WHO'S OPPOSED TO PROPOSITION 64?
- Public health, consumer, and public interest organizations including the American Lung Association of California, AARP, California Nurses Association, Consumers Union and Sierra Club California.
WHY CHANGE THE LAW?
- Supporters say the purpose of the initiative is to close a loophole
that allows shakedown lawsuits and because attorneys are filing too many
frivolous suits in the hopes of quick settlements.
However:
- Safeguards are already in place against shakedowns and frivolous
lawsuits.
- No punitive damages are available under the current law, only an end
to unscrupulous practices and an order that money be given back if someone
was robbed.
- Cases are decided by judges, not juries, which businesses say are
too easy to convince.
- There have been very few incidents of shakedown lawsuits reported to
authorities.
- UBCL, 17200 itself has been used to force unscrupulous lawyers who abused the law to give up their law licenses under threat of disbarment.
SUMMARY
The Los Angeles Times said in an editorial that "Proposition 64 would gut the state's tough Unfair Business Competition Law" and that "the all-or-nothing initiative risks throwing out the good with the bad."
California's Senior Assistant Attorney General Herschel Elkins says Proposition 64 "goes unbelievably far…Throwing out the baby with the bathwater is not the best thing. There are substantial problems with the proposal."
Proposition 64 is not about shakedown lawsuits or punishing a few unscrupulous lawyers, it's about posing a grave threat to California's workers, consumers, seniors, environment and the public's health and safety.
-Milt Younger, Senior Partner
HOT TOPIC
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