As all California antitrust lawyers know, California’s principal antitrust statute is the Cartwright Act.1 The Act “generally outlaws any combinations or agreements which restrain trade or competition or which fix or control prices.”2 And, as the California Supreme Court recently made clear, “[f]rom its inception, [the Act] has always been focused on the punishment of violators for the larger purpose of promoting free competition.
The main purpose of the antitrust laws is to protect the public from monopolies and restraints of trade, and the individual right of action for treble damages is incidental and subordinate to that main purpose.”3 Notably, the Act expressly provides a private cause of action for indirect purchasers of price-fixed goods.4