The California Chamber of Commerce continues to oppose AB 1776 (Aguiar-Curry; D-Winters), which would drastically reshape California antitrust law, despite changes made to the bill before last week’s Senate Appropriations Committee vote.
Lawmakers removed the bill’s “private right of action” (PRA) provision, which would have opened the door to frivolous lawsuits and devastating economic consequences for the state.
CalChamber commends that decision, which came as a welcome surprise after the bill’s author repeatedly refused to remove the PRA provision. However, concerns with the legislation beyond the PRA remain.
First, the bill still would severely narrow how alleged violations are measured by requiring anti-competitive and pro-competitive evidence to be measured only “within the same relevant market.” That approach ignores real-world instances where the conduct of a business in one market may generate significant benefits for consumers in a related or adjacent market.
Second, the bill says a single company only needs to have “substantial market power” to possibly be in violation of the law. Legal experts believe this provision would likely set an even lower threshold than that in place under current federal antitrust law.
Lastly, the bill’s author and sponsors have never cited specific, real-world examples of the behavior they are trying to change — a concern CalChamber has expressed since the legislation was introduced.
For these reasons, CalChamber remains opposed to AB 1776 and continues to urge lawmakers to reject the proposal.
