Legal Question in Consumer Law in California

Re: detained at door

Thanks for your question. Costco, or other companies, may have a policy that requires persons to check receipts at the door, so long as the policy is not:

(a) intrusive;

(b) falsely slanderous; or

(c) discriminatory.

A merchant statute in California, and other states, gives the store the right to "detain" someone temporarily either for the purpose of recovering merchandise and/or for summoning the police. To detain someone, under the statute, means that they are not technically under arrest, but merely being temporarily investigated.

Such a detention is not false arrest, unless it is overly intrusive, slanderous, or discriminatory.

Thanks again, and if you have any questions, please email or call me at 714-568-1560.