LOS ANGELES – California voters will decide next week whether to amend a New Deal-era law giving consumers the power to file suit over unfair business practices, a statute that has been used to target businesses from Philip Morris to Microsoft Corp.
Despite a donor list that includes some of the biggest names in American business, the California Chamber of Commerce, which co-chaired the effort to put the “anti-shakedown” measure on the ballot, cast it as protection for small firms.
Automakers and car dealers alone have donated more than $4 million to the campaign for the measure known as Prop. 64, and companies like Intel Corp., Pfizer Inc. and Shell Oil Co. have each given more than $100,000.
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has endorsed the measure, despite invoking the law in at least two lawsuits to stop companies from using his image in advertising and for a bobblehead doll.
But consumer advocates and nonprofit organizations such as the Sierra Club and the American Association of Retired Persons say the ballot measure goes too far and would gut a crucial tool to stop bad business behavior before it harms the public.
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