Issue

Class certification—predominance issues—illegal sales promotion—differing referral statutes between states

Summary

The Supreme Court of North Carolina vacated the trial court's order certifying a class that consisted of all persons who bought a home water treatment system from defendants (the system's manufacturer and a national home improvement store) during a specified period of time, during which a sales promotion was in place that offered rewards to buyers for referring new customers. The class included both South Carolina and North Carolina residents, whose purchases would be governed by their respective states' laws, and, since the states' respective referral statutes differed on whether inducement was a required element (i.e., that the illegal sales promotion induced a claimant to enter into the sale), the class, as certified, did not meet the predominance criteria for class certification (requiring that common issues of law or fact predominate over issues affecting only individual claimants) because South Carolina's statute would necessitate a plaintiff-by-plaintiff evaluation of who was induced by the sales promotion to buy the treatment system.

Summary from the North Carolina Reports digest (official subject index). Read the opinion →