Abbott Laboratories v. Superior Court
California Supreme Court
9 Cal. 5th 642, 467 P.3d 184, 264 Cal. Rptr. 3d 788 (2020)
- Written by Jamie Milne, JD
Facts
The Orange County district attorney (district attorney) (plaintiff) filed a claim against multiple pharmaceutical companies, including Abbott Laboratories (collectively, the companies) (defendants). The district attorney alleged that the companies violated California’s Unfair Competition Law (UCL) by purposefully delaying the sale of a generic drug to maximize their profits from sales of the name-brand versions. The district attorney’s complaint alleged that the conduct harmed California consumers. The companies moved to strike the complaint’s references to California, arguing that the district attorney could enforce the UCL only within the geographical territory of Orange County, not California as a whole. The superior court denied the motion, but the court of appeals reversed, ordering the superior court to grant the motion. The district attorney appealed to the California Supreme Court.
Rule of Law
Issue
Holding and Reasoning (Liu, J.)
What to do next…
Here's why 816,000 law students have relied on our case briefs:
- Written by law professors and practitioners, not other law students. 46,300 briefs, keyed to 988 casebooks. Top-notch customer support.
- The right amount of information, includes the facts, issues, rule of law, holding and reasoning, and any concurrences and dissents.
- Access in your classes, works on your mobile and tablet. Massive library of related video lessons and high quality multiple-choice questions.
- Easy to use, uniform format for every case brief. Written in plain English, not in legalese. Our briefs summarize and simplify; they don’t just repeat the court’s language.