Court Opinion

ID: 9940181
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2024-02-13 17:16:47.612322+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T13:42:40.124748
License: Public Domain

I concur in the opinion of the court prepared by Justice Werdegar. It addresses all the questions presented in this cause, and answers them correctly. Of course, issues remain for resolution in the future. On its face, or only slightly underneath, Business and Professions Code section 17045 requires unfair competition, injury to a competitor, and a tendency to destroy competition. It implicitly defines "unfair competition" as secret discrimination by a seller between or among its buyers. It similarly defines "injury to a competitor" as harm to a competitor of either the seller or a favored buyer. By contrast, it does not define a "tendency to destroy competition." Whether the phrase should be understood so as to further "[c]onsumer welfare," which is "a principal, if not the sole, goal of antitrust laws" (Cianci v. Superior Court (1985) 40 Cal.3d 903, 918 [221 Cal.Rptr. 575, 710 P.2d 375]), and to prevent "output restriction," which is "one of their principal targets" (State ofCalifornia ex rel. Van de Kamp v. Texaco, Inc. (1988) 46 Cal.3d 1147, 1183 [252 Cal.Rptr. 221, 762 P.2d 385] (conc. and dis. opn. of Mosk, J.)) — as it apparently should be — is a question for another day. *Page 1272