Nationwide Class Claims Under A Single State's Consumer Protection Laws?

A flurry of recent consumer protection cases in California federal courts led to mixed results for defendants attempting to dismiss nationwide class claims based on the state's choice of law rules. The U.S. District Court for the Southern District of California recently addressed the issue in Azar v. Gateway Genomics, LLC, in which plaintiff brought a putative nationwide class action alleging, inter alia, violations of California's Unfair Competition Law (UCL), False Advertising Law (FAL), and Consumer Legal Remedies Act (CLRA) in connection with the purchase of an early detection gender test. The defendant moved to dismiss the nationwide claims, relying on Mazza v. Am. Honda Motor Co., 666 F.3d 581 (9th Cir. 2012) and arguing the claims should be governed by the consumer protection statutes of the relevant jurisdictions. In Mazza, the Ninth Circuit vacated a class certification order after finding California's consumer protection statutes could not be applied to