People ex rel. Becerra v. Native Wholesale Supply Co.

*77 Defendant Native Wholesale Supply Company (NWS), an Indian-chartered corporation headquartered on a reservation in New York, sold over a billion contraband cigarettes to an Indian tribe in California, which then sold the cigarettes to the general public in California. ( People ex rel. Harris v. Native Wholesale Supply Co. (2011) 196 Cal.App.4th 357 , 362-364, 126 Cal.Rptr.3d 257 ( Harris ).) The cigarettes were imported from Canada, stored at various *449 places in the United States (not including California), and then shipped to California after they were ordered from the reservation in New York. The Attorney General succeeded on his motion for summary judgment holding NWS liable for civil penalties in violation of two California cigarette distribution and sale laws and Business and Professions Code section 17200 (the unfair competition law), and obtained a permanent injunction precluding NWS from making future sales. The Attorney General further obtained an award of attorney fees and expert expenses.

NWS appeals from the judgment and the attorney fee order. We affirm.

*78 BACKGROUND

I

Factual Background -- The Cigarette Sales Transactions

The material facts are…