Press Release

California Assembly Passes Bill to Crack Down on Algorithmic Price Fixing, Protecting Families and Small Businesses

06. 02. 2025

Economic Security California Action statement on passage of AB 325

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Sacramento, CA – Today the State Assembly voted to pass critical legislation that prohibits companies from using digital tools to secretly coordinate prices or restrict supply. Algorithmic price fixing is a modern form of collusion that’s driving up costs for everything from housing to groceries, and it harms both consumers and businesses. AB 325 (Aguiar-Curry) prohibits the use of pricing algorithms (including AI or other technology) that choke off competition, raise prices and limit choices for California’s families and small businesses. Teri Olle, Director of Economic Security California Action (ESCAA), issued the following statement applauding the Assembly’s action today:

When big businesses misuse AI to fix prices and pad their profits, costs skyrocket. AB 325 would prohibit algorithmic price fixing to make life more affordable and create a competitive marketplace that works better for everyone. You shouldn’t be able to use digital tools to break the rules. 

AB 325 represents an opportunity for California to model how a flourishing, competitive economy directly tackles the affordability crisis plaguing our country. We are at a choice point: we can continue to let companies underhandedly cheat to control markets and amass power – at all of our expense – or we can chart a path back to the principles of capitalism, where robust competition leads to greater choices and better prices for consumers. We can’t have both. 

The bill would update the Cartwright Act, the state’s antitrust statute. Economic Security California Action and partners, including Tech Equity Action and American Economic Liberties Project, which also co-sponsored AB 325, published a policy playbook last month on how the state could update its antitrust laws and regulations to comprehensively address the realities of a 21st-century economy dominated by mega-corporations,  platform monopolies, and digital tools that make it far too easy to break the rules.

Economic Security California Action joins advocates and Majority Leader Aguiar-Curry in celebrating this legislative milestone and encourages the Senate to pass the bill and Governor Newsom to sign it when it reaches his desk. 

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Economic Security California Action is an affiliate of Economic Security Project Action. Economic Security Project Action mobilizes resources and people behind ideas that build economic power for all Americans. As an ideas advocacy organization, we legitimize our issues by supporting cutting edge research and elevating champions, win concrete policy victories for the communities that need to see change now, and provoke the conventional wisdom to shift what’s considered possible. Our team of academics, organizers, practitioners and culture makers disburse grants, run issue campaigns, develop creative interventions and research products to support the field, and coordinate events to encourage investment and action from others.