Court Dismisses Consumer Protection Suit For Impinging on Charitable Solicitation
For-profit thrift store company advertises its relationships with charities who get paid for donations to stores
The Supreme Court of Washington has dismissed a group of claims brought by the state for violation of state consumer protection law by a for-profit thrift store operator that advertised its payments to “charity partners” for contributions to the thrift store operation. The Court has refused to apply the standard for liability usually applicable to “commercial” speech to determine whether a fraud had occurred and found that the claims do not survive the “strict scrutiny” applied to charitable solicitation. TVI, Inc., doing business as Value Village, operated about 20 for-profit thrift stores within the state. Approximately 93% of its retail inventory consists of used goods donated to TVI by...
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