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The NAM filed an amicus brief in the Oregon Court of Appeals supporting BP in an appeal of a class action statutory damages award that was grossly excessive and disproportionate to actual damages. The plaintiffs alleged that BP violated Oregon’s Unlawful Trade Practices Act by failing to display a 35-cent charge the stations imposed on debit card purchases; however, class plaintiffs did not claim that consumers lacked notice of the 35-cent fee (there was plenty of notice throughout the gas station), but instead argued that the state’s gasoline pricing rule required notice on the stations’ street signs or fuel dispensers. Businesses are at a risk of significant and unwarranted liability exposure without a statutory limit on punitive damages. The NAM’s brief argued that the 14th Amendment has been recognized to limit statutory damages for over a century, when, as here, the damages assessed against BP bear no relationship to the gravity of its conduct, the harm caused by that conduct or any other consideration that could rationally justify a large punishment. Unfortunately, the court rejected the challenge as untimely.