Rivian Again Fails to Shed Investor Suit on Overhyped Demand (1)

Rivian Automotive Inc. couldn’t shake an investor suit alleging it overstated demand, as a federal judge rejected the automaker’s argument that an appellate court’s decision concerning a pharmaceutical company’s “Tongue and Done” painkiller marketing doomed this case.

Rivian investors adequately pleaded the electric-vehicle maker’s statements about demand increases were misleading, as they were based on an allegedly unreliable preorder backlog, Judge Consuelo B. Marshall said Thursday. Preorders on the backlog could be canceled—making it a poor indicator to determine demand, which Rivian allegedly didn’t share with investors—and a large number of older orders were set to be sold for ...