What is unfair competition in San Diego and across California? How can you protect your business from the unscrupulous actions of competitors, or even your own business partners or employees?  Unfair competition is generally defined as anything a business might do to try to prevent other businesses from competing in a fair marketplace, outside of the normal strategies to gain competitive advantage.

3 Important Takeaways Regarding Unfair Competition in San Diego and Across California:

• California’s unfair competition laws are quite robust.  Generally speaking, they address three primary areas: an unlawful, fraudulent, or unfair business practice.
• The actions need to actually cost you business or money, and any California business may sue another company for taking actions that cause measurable, documentable harm to their business when the competitor takes unfair actions under the law, or conducts fraudulent or unfair practices.
• There are many forms of “relief” in these cases, including an immediate injunction to put a stop to the behavior, restitution for documentable losses and impact, as well as civil penalties.  In cases involving fraudulent actions the Court may award attorneys fees and additional penalties.

Examples of What Constitutes Unfair Competition in San Diego and Southern California

California’s unfair competition laws are quite complex.  If you have been accused of unfair competition or believe another business in your competitive market or internet space is attempting to unfairly manipulate the market you should contact the experienced business litigation and unfair competition attorneys at the Watkins Firm.  Draw on our more than 40 years of experience serving and protecting San Diego and California businesses and their owners.

Some of the examples of what is unfair competition in San Diego and across California include but are not limited to:

• Misappropriation or theft of business trade secrets, processes, suppliers or customer lists
• Manipulating sales prices (“Compare at” or “Retail Price” marked down) or selling below cost in an attempt to mislead consumers or drive competitors out of the marketplace
• Unlawful, misleading, misrepresentation, deception or false advertising
• Charging hidden fees to charge account holders or credit customers
• Deducting an employee’s commission according to unidentified or misrepresented returns or customer credits
• Violations of an environmental use permit
• Advertising one product, service or aspect of a product and not providing the opportunity to purchase or obtain the benefits, products or services offered (often referred to as “bait and switch”)

Pro-tip: ” if something’s being done to you, we know how to capture information, capture evidence without setting off alarms so that you’re in a much more advantageous position to either stop it or if you have to take action against the guilty party. You should understand that the first thing you need to do, if you think that business fraud has occurred in your business or in your dealings, is ask yourself, ‘have you lost money’? Or have you lost the opportunity to earn or make money?

And those things are not simple questions. Something may feel wrong, something may seem wrong, or you just may know it’s a gut instinct before you’ll write to the law, go right to your damages. And in unfair business practices and business fraud, we have a saying, if it’s off a penny, it’s off a million. If it doesn’t add up to the penny, there’s a reason.

So business to business fraud is a big topic. It happens. You’re in the marketplace, you are doing great, and all of a sudden no one’s coming to you anymore. And then you find out that the number one competitor has taken some of the elements of your website are saying bad things about you, or they’re doing a lost leader advertising BA and switch on the price. And they’re grabbing all your customers, but you have the best product and the best service. They are defrauding you out of your rightful profits. And you should, I’ll say it again, if for for unknown reason, all of a sudden you’re not making the money you used to. You might be the victim of fraud and don’t know it. Go see a lawyer who knows this stuff. We’ll spot it.

I have literally seen one company take the actual products of another company, relabel them and sell them. I’ve seen other cases where they’ll be an insider in one company, invested in another company and they’ll steal intellectual property and they’ll steal physical property and bring it over to the other company that are also invested in because they have a partnership dispute with their partner. And so they figure ‘I’m going to steal it before I fight it out in court or before I do all the other things.’ And so that’s crazy in and of itself. And then your general business to business fraud, where you defame the other company, you go out and steal their intellectual property, you steal their customer list, you advertise fraudulently about them. Business is brutal. And so we see a lot of that.” – Dan Watkins, Founding Partner

Available Relief or Penalties for Unfair Competition

California Unfair Competition laws provide a variety of penalties and relief based upon the unique circumstances of each situation.  Options available to the Court, and in mediation and settlement conferences include, but are not limited to:

• Injunctive relief – Court orders to immediately stop the actions that constitute unfair competition
• Restitution – repayment of the money your company has lost due to the unfair competition actions of another business or individual
• A civil penalty of up to $2,500 per violation
• Attorney’s fees – in egregious cases and those involving business fraud

Generally speaking, remedies in California Unfair Competition statutes are designed more to put a stop to what is happening and provide restitution, versus the types of punitive damages often awarded in business fraud cases.

Experienced Attorneys for Unfair Competition in San Diego and Across California

Are you searching for experienced attorneys for unfair competition in San Diego or across California?  Determining what constitutes unfair competition California can be legally broad and quite complex.  If you have been accused of unfair competition or are concerned about the actions of a competitor, former employer, former partner or other party in the marketplace you need the experienced business dispute attorneys at the Watkins Firm.  We defend those who are accused of unfair competition and pursue cases against those who practice unfair competition.

We invite you to review our podcast Episode 25 – Unfair Business Practice Overview, and Episode 32 – Business Fraud and  as well as the strong recommendations of our clients and contact the Watkins Firm or call 858-535-1511 for a complimentary consultation today.