In a lawsuit filed in Santa Clara County, California, some existing and former Apple resellers claim that Apple tried to drive them out of business by opening Apple Stores in close proximity to the resellers and by withholding inventory to ensure that it was available for the corporate stores. According to this article on msnbc.com, the original Apple lawsuit has been pending since 2003 and there are now five plaintiffs in separate actions, which will likely be consolidated. The plaintiffs, however, are looking for some Apple reseller solidarity by inviting other resellers to file suit and have recently engaged franchisee counsel to lead the prosecution of their claims. It's unclear whether any franchise claims (under California or other state law) have been asserted in any of the suits, but the resellers' new counsel, David Franklin, is comparing the cases to an encroachment case he handled against the Fotomat franchisor in the early 1980s. A copy of the most recent complaint against Apple is available here.
Posted by franchiselawblog at December 27, 2004 05:46 PM