Ariix, LLC v. Nutrisearch Corporation

UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT SOUTHERN DISTRICT OF CALIFORNIA 10 ARIIX, LLC, Case No.: 17CV320-LAB (DDL)

Plaintiff,

ORDER RE: REMAND

v. NUTRISEARCH CORPORATION, et al., 15 Defendant.

Plaintiff Ariix, LLC (“Ariix”), a nutritional supplement company, brings this suit under the Lanham Act based on a theory of false advertising. Ariix alleges that Defendants NutriSearch Corporation (“NutriSearch”), the publisher of the NutriSearch Comparative Guide to Nutritional Supplements (“Guide”), and Lyle MacWilliam, the Guide’s author (together with NutriSearch, “Defendants”), were directly funded by Ariix’s competitor, USANA Health Sciences, Inc. (“Usana”), so that Usana could achieve the Guide’s number-one rating for nutritional supplements. This Court originally dismissed Ariix’s false advertising claim, but in a two-one decision, the Ninth Circuit reversed, finding that Ariix had “plausibly alleged that the defendant’s publication was commercial speech, was sufficiently disseminated, and contained…