In Belton v. Comcast Cable Holdings, LLC, ___ Cal.App.4th ___ (June 8, 2007), the Court of Appeal (First Appellate District, Division One) addressed the interplay between the UCL, the CLRA, and the Unruh Act (Civ. Code §51). Among other things, the Court applied the post-Cel-Tech formulation of "unfair" to this consumer action:
[Plaintiffs] rely upon the definition of “unfair” set forth in Cel-Tech, supra, 20 Cal.4th 163. In Cel-Tech, the court, in the context of an unfair competition claim by a competitor, defined “unfair” as “conduct that threatens an incipient violation of an antitrust law, or violates the policy or spirit of one of those laws because its effects are comparable to or the same as a violation of the law, or otherwise significantly threatens or harms competition.” (Id. at p. 187.) The Cel-Tech court further required “that any finding of unfairness to competitors under [Business and Professions Code] section 17200 be tethered to some legislatively declared policy or proof of some actual or threatened impact on competition.” (Id. at pp. 186-187.) The court left open the question whether this definition should also apply in the context of unfair competition claims brought by consumers (id. at p. 187, fn. 12), leading to a split of authority on this question among the courts of appeal. (See Bardin v. DaimlerChrysler Corp. (2006) 136 Cal.App.4th 1255, 1273-1274 [noting the split of authority and urging the California Supreme Court to resolve it].) This court, however, has followed the line of authority that also requires the allegedly unfair business practice be “tethered” to a legislatively declared policy or has some actual or threatened impact on competition. (See Gregory v. Albertson’s, Inc. (2002) 104 Cal.App.4th 845, 853-854.)
Slip op. at 14. The Court of Appeal affirmed the judgment in the defendant's favor on all causes of action.
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