Section 646.775 - Actions by Attorney General; damages; attorney fees(1)(a) The Attorney General may bring a civil action in the name of the State of Oregon, on behalf of a public body or as parens patriae on behalf of a natural person for injury that the natural person or the state or the public body sustained to the natural person's, the state's or the public body's property by reason of a violation of ORS 646.725 or 646.730. In the action, the Attorney General may seek:(A) Equitable relief, including disgorgement of any gains;(B) Injunctive relief; and(b) The Attorney General may bring an action under this subsection regardless of whether the natural person, the state or the public body dealt directly or indirectly with the adverse party.(c) Subject to paragraphs (d) and (e) of this subsection, the court shall award to the Attorney General on behalf of a natural person, the state or a public body three times the total damages that the natural person, the state or the public body sustained from the violation plus the Attorney General's costs in bringing the action. The court may award to the Attorney General reasonable attorney fees and expert fees and costs of investigation if the Attorney General prevails in an action under this subsection.(d) The court shall exclude from the amount of monetary relief awarded in an action under this subsection any amount of monetary relief:(A) That duplicates amounts that have been awarded for the same injury; or(B) That is properly allocable to natural persons who have excluded their claims pursuant to subsection (2)(b) of this section, or to any business entity.(e) The court shall award to the Attorney General only the actual damages that the natural person, the state or the public body sustains if the Attorney General prevails solely on the basis of a judgment entered in a proceeding under 15 U.S.C. 1 to 45, or in another action by the state under ORS 646.760, 646.770 or 646.780, that is used as collateral estoppel against the defendant under ORS 646.805.(f) The court may award reasonable attorney fees to a defendant that prevails in an action under this subsection if the court determines that the Attorney General had no objectively reasonable basis for asserting the claim or no reasonable basis for appealing an adverse decision of the trial court.(2)(a) In any action the Attorney General brings under subsection (1) of this section, the Attorney General shall, at the times, in the manner and with the content the court directs, give notice by publication. If the court finds that notice given solely by publication would deny due process of law to a natural person or a public body, the court may direct further notice to the natural person or public body according to the circumstances of the case.(b) Any natural person or public body on whose behalf the Attorney General brings an action under subsection (1) of this section may elect to exclude from adjudication the portion of the claim for monetary relief attributable to the natural person or public body by filing notice of the election with the court within the time specified in the notice given pursuant to paragraph (a) of this subsection.(c) The final judgment in an action under subsection (1) of this section is res judicata as to any claim any natural person or public body has in an action that the Attorney General brought on behalf of the natural person or the public body if the natural person or public body fails to give the notice specified in paragraph (b) of this subsection within the period specified in the notice the Attorney General gives under paragraph (a) of this subsection.(3) An action under subsection (1) of this section may not be dismissed or compromised without the approval of the court, and the notice of any proposed dismissal or compromise must be given in the manner the court directs.(4) In any action under subsection (1) of this section in which there has been a determination that a defendant agreed to fix prices in violation of ORS 646.725, damages may be proved and assessed in the aggregate by statistical or sampling methods, by the computation and pro rata allocation of illegal overcharges, or by any other reasonable system of estimating aggregate damages that the court in the court's discretion may permit without the necessity of separately proving the individual claim of, or amount of damage to, the natural person or public body on whose behalf the Attorney General brought the action.(5)(a) Monetary relief recovered in an action under subsection (1) of this section must be distributed in the manner the court in the court's discretion may authorize, subject to the requirement that any distribution procedure adopted afford a reasonable opportunity to secure an appropriate portion of the net monetary relief to each natural person or public body on whose behalf the Attorney General brought the action.(b) The Attorney General shall deposit that portion of the monetary relief the court awards as costs of the action and a reasonable attorney fee in the Department of Justice Protection and Education Revolving Account established pursuant to ORS 180.095.(c) To the extent that the monetary relief the court awards is not exhausted by distribution under paragraphs (a) and (b) of this subsection, the remaining funds are a civil penalty for the benefit of the state under ORS 646.760.(6) The powers granted in this section are in addition to and not in derogation of the common law powers of the Attorney General to act as parens patriae, or the powers of the Attorney General to sue as a representative party on behalf of a class under ORCP 32.Amended by 2023 Ch. 103, § 4, eff. 9/24/2023.1979 c.790 §3; 1981 c.897 §82; 1995 c.696 §38; 2001 c.393 §1; 2009 c. 820, § 4