Press Release
New Bill Would Ban Self-Preferencing by Trillion Dollar Big Tech Companies, Protect Startups and Consumers
03. 18. 2026
ESCA and Y Combinator Co-Sponsor Sen. Wiener’s SB 1074 to prohibit dominant platforms from rigging their own marketplaces to smother competition.
San Francisco, CA – Senator Scott Wiener today introduced SB 1074, the Blocking Anticompetitive Self-preferencing by Entrenched Dominant platforms (BASED) Act, co-sponsored by Economic Security California Action (ESCAA) and tech incubator Y Combinator, would stop the largest few trillion-dollar digital platforms from systematically favoring their own products and services over those of competitors. The bill would prohibit self-preferencing, which is a well-documented set of practices that the select few largest tech platforms have used to maintain market dominance, suppress competition, disadvantage small businesses, and frustrate all who use technology in their daily lives.
“When the same company owns the marketplace it competes in, it is all too easy to unfairly tilt the scales in their own favor. It’s well documented that this is precisely what some of the largest tech companies have been doing,” said Teri Olle, Vice President, Economic Security California Action. “Startups, small and medium tech companies, and independent entrepreneurs can’t build and grow if the most ubiquitous digital platforms bury their products. The BASED Act would prohibit self-preferencing and safeguard merit-based market competition. This legislation stands for a simple principle: owning the stadium doesn’t mean that you get to rig the game.”
SB 1074 prohibits self-preferencing conduct for the largest tech platforms, those owned by companies with a market capitalization of $1 trillion or more and that serve 100 million or more U.S. monthly users. Prohibited conduct includes manipulating search results to favor a platform’s own products, exploiting nonpublic data from third-party sellers to build competing products, conditioning platform access on purchasing the provider’s own services, and blocking consumers from transferring their own data.
SB 1074 runs alongside the COMPETE Act (AB 1776), ESCAA’s co-sponsored legislation updating California’s foundational antitrust statute to address anti-competitive conduct by dominant single firms. Where the COMPETE Act strengthens the structural framework of California’s antitrust statute, SB 1074 prohibits specific, documented abuses by the largest digital gatekeepers, including Amazon, Google, Meta, and Apple. The enforcement of SB 1074 is modeled on the Cartwright Act, which would allow for a private right of action for the injured business or consumer; or allow for the Attorney General to bring action on behalf of the state. Together, the bills represent a comprehensive approach to restoring fair competition in California’s economy.
Federal legislation that would have prohibited self-preferencing received bipartisan support but has stalled, and inconsistent federal enforcement of antitrust laws makes this the right time for California to set the standard.
SB 1074 is authored by Senator Scott Wiener and co-sponsored by Y Combinator and Economic Security California Action and is supported by startups and advocates across the state.