Wal-Mart Tries to Unmask Foes - Retail Giant Asks Courts to Establish Whether Competitors Backed Suits That Slowed Its Growth

From the Wall Street Journal:

Wal-Mart Stores Inc. is fighting back against a longtime corporate-sabotage campaign undertaken by grocery competitors to slow its growth. The Bentonville, Ark.-based retailer recently asked judges to require its opponents to disclose who is footing the legal bills in four out of the dozens of California lawsuits against Wal-Mart that have helped delay the company’s expansion.

Lawyers for Wal-Mart want to know if the protracted environmental suits have been funded not by grass-roots activists, as the company long thought, but rather by competitors. “We believe the court and the community have a right to know who is funding the suits,” said Wal-Mart spokesman David Tovar.