New Bill Would Update Century-Old Antitrust Statute and Give Workers, Consumers, Small Business New Power to Fight Back

Press Release

New Bill Would Update Century-Old Antitrust Statute and Give Workers, Consumers, Small Business New Power to Fight Back

02. 17. 2026

Economic Security California Action Co-Sponsors COMPETE Act to Crack Down on Monopolies Driving Up Prices and Suppressing Wages

Sacramento, CA – Assembly Majority Leader Cecilia Aguiar-Curry held a press conference today unveiling the Competition and Opportunity in Markets, for a Prosperous, Equitable and Transparent Economy (COMPETE) Act, landmark legislation co-sponsored by Economic Security California Action (ESCAA) that would update California’s 119-year-old antitrust statute to address corporate monopolies that are fueling the state’s affordability crisis.

The bill codifies unanimous recommendations from the California Law Revision Commission (CLRC) following years of expert review, more than a dozen public meetings, thousands of public comments, and an entire report outlining potential solutions to update antitrust statutes from Economic Security California and partners. The COMPETE Act would make California a leader in the nation on antitrust reform and the latest state to prohibit anticompetitive conduct by single companies. Failure to regulate abuse by monopolies is a critical gap in current statute that has allowed dominant corporations to raise prices, suppress wages, and squeeze out small businesses without legal consequence.

The legislation closes loopholes that allow single firms operating as monopolies to abuse their market dominance and clarifies that it is illegal for single corporations to block competitors, suppress wages, or use power in one market to dominate another.

“For over a century, California’s antitrust laws have stayed essentially the same while corporate power and profits have exploded,” said Loyal Terry, Legislative Advocate for Economic Security California Action. “Monopolies today can– and do– abuse their power by short-changing workers, hiking prices for consumers at the checkout, and squeezing small businesses who have an edge in the local economy. The COMPETE Act will modernize the rules and level the playing field so we can all afford to call California our home.”

The bill has drawn support from small business owners who have experienced firsthand the consequences of unchecked corporate power.

“Without my knowledge or consent, Amazon scraped my website to create a storefront on their platform, leveraging stolen product images, fake AI generated images, and altered product descriptions from my site as part of their “Buy For Me” program,” said Angie Chua, Owner of Bobo Design Studio in Palm Springs. “I’m not alone. Hundreds, if not thousands, of independent retailers discovered that their entire catalogs had been scraped and placed on the Amazon platform without their consent. I support this legislation because this kind of unchecked predatory behavior from Amazon and other monopolies has to stop. As entrepreneurs, we deserve a fair chance to build a business that customers can trust.”

The COMPETE Act builds on California’s leadership in consumer protection at a time when federal enforcement has been weakened by decades of court decisions favoring corporations. The bill targets anticompetitive conduct that stifles innovation, harms consumers and workers, and exacerbates California’s affordability crisis, while allowing for robust business growth. It will give California independence from federal standards that have been weakened and remove legal barriers that have let corporations escape accountability. If passed, it would ensure courts are properly applying California law, which – contrary to federal law – seeks to deter monopolies from ever forming in the first place.

In 2022, the California Legislature directed the California Law Review Commission, the state’s most prestigious nonjudicial legal body, to study whether state antitrust statutes should be strengthened. After assembling eight panels of antitrust academics, corporate lawyers, and industry practitioners, the CLRC unanimously recommended in January 2026 that California prohibit anticompetitive acts by single companies and clarify that California courts are not bound by weakened federal antitrust precedent.

The COMPETE Act is authored by Majority Leader Aguiar-Curry and co-sponsored by a broad coalition of nonprofits, organized labor, and small business leaders, including the American Economic Liberties Project, California Federation of Labor Unions, California Nurses Association, Consumer Federation of California, Economic Security California/Action, SEIU California, Small Business Majority, Teamsters California, TechEquity Action, United Food and Commercial Workers, Western States Council, and the Writers Guild of America West.