Case Description
As part of a negotiated settlement, the State of Florida sought to enjoin the defendant laundry equipment leasing companies from entering leases containing automatic unilateral renewal provisions, alleging that such provisions foreclosed would-be competitors from maintaining viable competition. In order to resolve the dispute without litigation, defendant laundry companies agreed to refrain from entering such leases, also called Blue Eagle Leases, which contained the unilateral renewal provisions. Also, upon expiration of their current outstanding leases that were in their initial term or in their first renewal period, defendant companies gave the affected lessors the option of entering new leases with other leasing companies or remain with the defendant companies. This option was the result of deleting the unilateral renewal option.
