Trepco Imports & Distribution, Ltd. v. Arizona Beverages USA, LLC

CourtDistrict Court, S.D. California
DecidedJuly 28, 2020
Docket3:20-cv-00521
StatusUnknown

This text of Trepco Imports & Distribution, Ltd. v. Arizona Beverages USA, LLC (Trepco Imports & Distribution, Ltd. v. Arizona Beverages USA, LLC) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, S.D. California primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Trepco Imports & Distribution, Ltd. v. Arizona Beverages USA, LLC, (S.D. Cal. 2020).

Opinion

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT 9 SOUTHERN DISTRICT OF CALIFORNIA 10 Case No.: 20CV521-DMS(BLM) 11 TREPCO IMPORTS & DISTRIBUTION, LTD,

12 Plaintiff ORDER GRANTING MOTION TO COMPEL NON-PARTY RETAILERS TO 13 v. COMPLY WITH DOCUMENT SUBPOENAS 14 ARIZONA BEVERAGES USA, LLC,

15 Defendant. [ECF NO. 1] 16 17 Currently before the Court is Defendant Arizona Beverages USA LLC’s March 19, 2020 18 Motion to Compel Non-Party Retailers to Comply with Document Subpoenas [see ECF No. 1-2 19 (“MTC”)], the July 10, 2020 oppositions/responses of non-party retailers El Sol Market [see ECF 20 No. 7 (“El Sol Oppo.”)]1, Quick Korner and Qwik Korner [see ECF No. 8 (“Quick Korner Oppo.”)], 21 Minute Mart and Golden State Market [see ECF No. 9 (“MM & GS Oppo.”)], Paradise Liquor [see 22 ECF No. 10 (“Paradise Oppo.”)], Aztec Liquor [see ECF No. 11 (“Aztec Oppo.”)], Cost Mart Inc. 23 [see ECF No. 12 (“Cost Mart Oppo.”)], 7-Q Liquor [see ECF No. 13 (“7-Q Oppo.”)], and El Sol 24

25 1 ECF No. 7, entitled Non-Party Deponent CD & V Imperial, Inc. dba El Sol Market’s 26 Opposition/Response to Defendant Arizona Beverages USA, LLC’s Motion to Compel appears to 27 be identical to ECF No. 14 also entitled Non-Party Deponent CD & V Imperial, Inc. dba El Sol Market’s Opposition/Response to Defendant Arizona Beverages USA, LLC’s Motion to Compel. 28 1 Market [see ECF No. 14 (“El Sol Oppo.”)], and Defendant’s July 17, 2020 Reply [see ECF No. 15 2 (“Reply”)]. For the reasons set forth below, Defendant’s motion is GRANTED. 3 FACTUAL BACKGROUND 4 This matter stems from an underlying case in the Central District of California, 18CV2605- 5 JGB(SP) and is related to 19-cv-02204-DMS-BLM, Trepco Imports & Distribution, LTD v. Arizona 6 Beverages USA, LLC. MTC at 6. In the Central District case, Plaintiff Trepco Imports & 7 Distribution, LTD alleges claims of price discrimination under the Robinson-Patman Act, 15 U. S. 8 C. § 13 (“RPA”). ECF No. 1-3, Declaration of Sharon G. Gelbart In Support of Arizona Beverages 9 USA LLC’s Motion to Compel Non-Party Retailers to Comply with Document Subpoenas (“Gelbart 10 Decl.”) at Exh. A (Second Amended Complaint in 18cv2605-JGB(SP)). Plaintiff alleges that 11 Defendant Arizona Beverages USA, LLC “violated the RPA by charging Trepco a higher price for 12 its iced tea products than it charges to Trepco’s alleged competitors.” MTC at 6; see also Gelbart 13 Decl. at Exh. A. Plaintiff, an independent wholesaler, sells Arizona Ice Tea and other beverages 14 to “retail convenience stores, liquor stores, gas stations, independent grocers and smoke shops.” 15 Id.; see also Gelbart Decl. at Exh. A at ¶ 13. Defendant sold cases of Arizona Ice Tea to Plaintiff 16 for $12.19 a case, but beginning in 2012, Defendant informed Plaintiff that it was no longer 17 eligible for the $12.19 price, and that the new price would be $13.65 per case. Gelbart Decl. at 18 Exh. A ¶¶ 17-19. After the price increase, Plaintiff’s competitors continued to receive cases of 19 Arizona Ice Tea at lower prices. Id. at ¶ 19. Plaintiff specifically identified seventeen customers 20 from whom it lost sales after the price increase including 21 Quick Korner • 7-Q Liquor • Aztec Liquor • Minute Mart • Qwik Korner • Golden 22 Gate Market • Bobar No. 8 • Palm Ave Market • Bowman’s Market • Neighbors 23 Market • Ace Liquor • Cost Mart • Bobar No. 1 • El Sol No. 3 • Twin Oaks • Central Liquor • Paradise Liquor. 24 25 MTC at 6; see also Gelbart Decl. at Exh A ¶37. 26 DISCOVERY BACKGROUND 27 On July 25, 2019, Defendant served Requests for Production of Documents (“RFPs”) on 28 Plaintiff seeking information such as Plaintiff’s sales of Arizona Ice Tea products to its customers 1 from 2010 to the present. MTC at 7; see also Gelbart Dec. at ¶ 4, Exh. C. After objecting to 2 most of the requests, Plaintiff responded that “(1) it lost all of its transactional-level2 electronic 3 sales data showing its sales of Arizona iced tea products from before August 2013;3 and (2) it 4 does not have accurate transactional-level electronic sales data showing its sales of Arizona iced 5 tea products for at least the first half of 2014.4” Id.; see also Gelbart Decl. at ¶¶ 6-7; Exhs. D- 6 E. Plaintiff further responded that it does not maintain many of its paper records regarding past 7 purchase orders or invoices in an organized manner and could not confirm that those records 8 are exhaustive. Id.; see also Gelbart Decl. at ¶ 8, Exh. F. 9 On October 31, 2019, Defendant served document subpoenas on the seventeen retailers 10 identified in Plaintiff’s complaint as lost customers. Id. at 8; see also Gelbart Decl. at Exhs G- 11 W. The subpoenas seek responses to eleven RFP’s for the time frame of January 1, 2010 to the 12 present and do not seek any deposition testimony. Id. Responses to the subpoenas were due 13 on November 14, 2019. Id.; see also Gelbart Decl. at ¶ 10. None of the subpoenaed retailers 14 served any objections or responses to the subpoenas by November 14, 2019. Id. One retailer, 15 Central Liquor, requested an extension of time to respond which was granted, but the retailer 16 never objected or responded. Id. at n.5; see also Gelbart Decl. at ¶ 11. 17 On November 15, 2019, Plaintiff’s counsel emailed defense counsel objecting to the 18 subpoenas and filed a Motion for a Protective Order Re:17 Document Subpoenas in the related 19 20 2 The term “transactional-level data” is used throughout this motion to refer to data showing, 21 for each individual sale or purchase, what products were sold or purchased at what price to whom and when. It is the opposite of aggregate or summary data. 22 3 Specifically, for the years 2010 to August-2013, Trepco claims to have lost all of its electronic 23 transactional-level data, i.e., all of the electronic data that would reveal when, how much, and 24 to whom Trepco sold Arizona iced tea products. (Gelbart Decl.¶ 6.) The only electronic data that remains is yearly summary data showing Trepco’s total sales of Arizona iced tea products. 25 (Id.)

26 4 Trepco claims that a software issue at its warehouses resulted in sales being wrongly counted 27 throughout part of 2014. As a result, it claims that at least half of the 2014 electronic transactional-level sales data is inaccurate and unreliable. (Gelbart Decl. ¶ 7.) 28 1 Southern District case, 19-cv-02204-DMS-BLM, Trepco Imports & Distribution, LTD v. Arizona 2 Beverages USA, LLC. Id. at 8; see also Gelbart Decl. at ¶ ¶ 12-13. On February 3, 2020, the 3 Court issued an order Denying Plaintiff’s Motion. See Docket for 19-cv-02204-DMS-BLM at ECF 4 No. 6. 5 On February 10, 2020, Defendant attempted to contact each of the subpoenaed retailers 6 via letter and extended the deadline to respond to the subpoenas to February 18, 2020. MTC 7 at 8; see also Gelbart Decl. at ¶ 15, Exh. Z. None of the seventeen retailers responded or 8 reached out to Defendant for an extension of time to respond. Id.; see also Gelbart Decl. at ¶ 9 16. On February 26, 2020, Defendant attempted to contact the retailers via telephone, but 10 either received no response, was promised a call back that never came, or was hung up on. Id. 11 at 9; see also Gelbart Decl. at ¶ 17. The one exception was Mr. Adel Yalda who owns at least 12 seven of the retailers at issue5 and who informed Defendant that he provided Plaintiff with 13 sample invoices on February 14, 2020 after speaking with Plaintiff’s part owner and CEO, Mr. Al 14 Paulus. Id.; see also Gelbart Decl. at ¶ ¶ 18-19. Mr. Yalda agreed to send copies of the 15 paperwork to Defendant which he did on February 27, 2020, however, the production included 16 only one invoice for each of the seven stores. Id.; see also Gelbart Decl. at ¶ 20. Two days 17 after receiving the single invoice, on March 6, 2020, Plaintiff informed Defendant that it received 18 seven invoices from Mr. Yalda and emailed them to Defendant. Id. at 9-10; see also Gelbart 19 Decl. at ¶ 21.

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Trepco Imports & Distribution, Ltd. v. Arizona Beverages USA, LLC, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/trepco-imports-distribution-ltd-v-arizona-beverages-usa-llc-casd-2020.