Is Qualification to Transact Business a Consent to General Jurisdiction?

Is Qualification to Transact Business a Consent to General Jurisdiction?

      There exists an ongoing debate as to whether qualification to transact business in a foreign jurisdiction constitutes consent to general jurisdiction in that foreign state. There are cases going both ways, although it must be noted that many of them are from Pennsylvania, which expressly provides in its qualification statute that qualification constitutes consent.

       Most recently, in American Dairy Queen Corporation v. W.B. Mason Co., Inc., 2018 WL 135699 (D. Minn. Jan. 8, 2019), the court held that the defendant qualification to transact business in Minnesota was sufficient for it to be sued in Minnesota notwithstanding the lawsuit is over a product that the defendant never sold into that jurisdiction.