Sacramento, CA — Following news that California Governor Gavin Newsom has signed AB 325 (Aguiar-Curry), the Preventing Algorithmic Price Fixing Act — a bill that strengthens the state’s antitrust laws to fight collusive digital pricing algorithms that raise prices, reduce supply, and thwart small business independence — the American Economic Liberties Project released the following statement. 

“California just took a huge step forward in the fight against market-rigging tech that’s pouring fuel on the state’s affordability crisis,” said Lee Hepner, Senior Legal Counsel at American Economic Liberties Project. “These aren’t just digital price consultants. They’re cartel production services. Coercive price fixing algorithms raise prices and restrict new investment, and they rob small businesses of their independence, subjecting mom and pop business owners to the control of extractive tech platforms.”

“In many ways, the story of the 21st Century economy is defined by the rise of coercive technology that prioritizes the scale and efficiency of e-commerce platforms while subjecting the rest of us to endless scams and higher priced goods,” Hepner added. “Much of the general frustration people feel as consumers can be traced back to these illegal combinations of corporate power. In that context, AB 325 is a nation–leading effort to drag this law into the digital era and plainly states that rigging markets via code is no different than rigging markets in a smoky back room.”

AB 325, the Preventing Algorithmic Price Fixing Act, led by Assemblymember Cecilia Aguiar-Curry, modernizes California’s century old Cartwright Act — the state’s foundational antitrust law — to take on the latest frontier in collusive and predatory practices: digital pricing algorithms that let corporations coordinate prices without ever speaking to each other. As Californians continue to face rising costs for essentials like groceries, housing, and transportation, these algorithms have quietly allowed powerful companies and investors to move in lockstep, driving prices higher and squeezing families and small businesses. By making clear that state price-fixing laws apply when companies hand over pricing decisions to shared or coordinated algorithms, AB 325 gives the Attorney General and private enforcers the tools they need to stop digital collusion and restore fair competition across California’s markets.

Learn more about Economic Liberties here.

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The American Economic Liberties Project works to ensure America’s system of commerce is structured to advance, rather than undermine, economic liberty, fair commerce, and a secure, inclusive democracy. Economic Liberties believes true economic liberty means entrepreneurs and businesses large and small succeed on the merits of their ideas and hard work; commerce empowers consumers, workers, farmers, and engineers instead of subjecting them to discrimination and abuse from financiers and monopolists; foreign trade arrangements support domestic security and democracy; and wealth is broadly distributed to support equitable political power.