Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield & several of their tenants signed onto a lawsuit alleging that Los Angeles County’s COVID19 indoor shopping ban was an act of discrimination & a violation of retailers’ constitutional rights. Local & State governments have adopted different closing policies during the pandemic & businesses will be seeking financial payments in restitution to their losses. The county agreed to reopen enclosed shopping malls by Wednesday at 25% capacity, the lawsuit will be seeking damages for the plaintiffs financial damages taken during the forced closings. “Defendants have forced hundreds of businesses in indoor malls to close, kept thousands of county residents out of work, caused millions of dollars in lost wages & revenue, & brought many businesses to the brink of collapse — without offering a single valid, science- or health-based reason for their actions,” the legal team wrote in the initial complaint filed in late September.

Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield & its fellow plaintiffs argue in the lawsuit that they have been denied equal protection under the law, & that implementation of the policy hasn’t been evenly & fairly administered across the retail sector.

They point to the fact that large indoor retailer like Costco was allowed to stay open, but not the My Dream Boutique on the inside of Westfield Fashion Square mall in Sherman Oaks? Why should L.A. County have different rules than the state of California, which lifted the total ban on indoor shopping weeks ago? The possibility for this lawsuit to move beyond the border of California is based on the fact that retailers throughout various jurisdictions have been subjected to uneven & even unfair policies as a result of the nature of COVID-19 respond in the United States.