On Aug. 24, 2017, the California Court of Appeal affirmed that outlet stores can sell outlet clothes. The need for this judicial proclamation was precipitated by a lawsuit filed by Linda Rubenstein against Gap alleging that it was fraudulent and unlawful for Gap to offer Gap branded merchandise at its outlet store that was not identical to the Gap branded merchandise offered at its non-outlet stores.
You might recognize the plaintiff’s name from Rubenstein v. Neiman Marcus, an unpublished 9th Circuit decision from April 2017. In that case, the 9th Circuit reversed the district court’s dismissal of Rubenstein’s complaint that the price tags at Neiman Marcus’s Last Call stores were false and misleading, and remanded the case back to the district court. In contrast, the California Court of Appeal affirmed the trial court’s judgment sustaining Gap’s demurrer without leave to amend in Rubenstein v. The Gap.
