NEWARK, N.J. (Legal Newsline) – Rather than dismiss a lawsuit alleging California is imposing certain business standards on the rest of the country, a New Jersey federal judge is sending that challenge to California.
Judge Kevin McNulty on Nov. 16 transferred the lawsuit to Sacramento federal court, where California officials will fight claims they are forcing the state’s water flow restrictions on companies in other states.
Interlink Products, a manufacturer of shower heads, filed its lawsuit earlier this year against the California Natural Resources Agency and the California Energy Resources Conservation and Development Commission.
“The problem is that Interlink seeks a ruling that would potentially impair the ability of California to regulate the efficiency of in-state appliances that arrived from elsewhere. That impairment, given the prevalence of internet buying in the modern economy, could be a substantial one,” McNulty wrote.
“In drought-plagued California, the public interest in water conservation is a substantial one. A court on the other side of the country may rightly be skeptical about whether it is the best arbiter of such questions.”
California has adopted regulations that require showerheads sold in the state to have a maximum water flow in order to conserve water.
But the state is now targeting sales that occur over the internet, the suit says.
“Defendants ignore the well-settled rule… that telephone, mail order and internet sales that are delivered to customers by common carrier take place at the location where the goods are transferred to the common carrier,” the lawsuit says.
“In Interlink’s case, its products that are pertinent to this lawsuit ship from New Jersey or locations other than California, and Interlink does not offer to make sales of those showerheads in California.”