Pan Asia Venture Capital Corp. v. Hearst Corp.

One provision of California’s Unfair Practices Act specifies that “It is unlawful for any person engaged in business within this State to sell any article or product at less than the cost thereof . . . for the purpose of injuring competitors or destroying competition.” (Bus. & Prof. Code, § 17043. ) The fundamental issue here is how to compute the cost of news paper advertising space in a major metropolitan market. A complicating factor is that, for all practical purposes, there are only two actors in that market.

An unbroken line of decisional authority holds that just what constitutes an economic actor’s “cost” is an issue of fact to be decided by the trier of fact. In this case, however, the trial court decided the cost issue as a matter of law in circumstances that virtually ensured a verdict for the plaintiff. We therefore shall reverse the judgment for plaintiff together with an ensuing order awarding attorney fees.

Background

The dispute between the parties, and the extensive record generated by that dispute, reveal a mountain of detail, not all of which warrants recapitulation here. For present purposes, the following abbreviated narrative will suffice;

For a…