SB 295 (Hurtado D) California Preventing Algorithmic Collusion Act of 2025.

Current Text: Amended: 9/2/2025 html pdf
Last Amend: 9/2/2025
Status: 9/3/2025-Read second time. Ordered to third reading.
Location: 9/3/2025-A. THIRD READING
Summary: Current law imposes various responsibilities on the Attorney General related to consumer
protection, including, among others, the supervision of charitable trusts and the enforcement of
antitrust laws. Current law, commonly known as the Cartwright Act, identifies certain acts that are
unlawful restraints of trade and unlawful trusts and prescribes provisions for its enforcement through
civil actions. This bill would enact the California Preventing Algorithmic Collusion Act of 2025, to prohibit
a person person, as described, from distributing or making recommendations based on the use of a
pricing algorithm to 2 or more competitors, as defined, under specified circumstances, if the person
knows or should know that the pricing algorithm processes competitor data, as defined. This bill would
also prohibit a person from using the recommendation of a pricing algorithm that processes competitor
data, as specified, if the person knows or should know that the pricing algorithm uses or incorporates
competitor data. The bill would establish an affirmative defense to liability under this prohibition for a
person who demonstrates by a preponderance of evidence that they exercised reasonable due
diligence before using the recommendations of a pricing algorithm, as specified. The bill would specify
when the use, recommendation, or distribution of a pricing algorithm constitutes separate violations.
The bill would declare that these provisions do not apply if all of the competitor data processed by the
pricing algorithm was collected more than one year before the use, recommendation, or distribution of
the pricing algorithm. The bill would declare that a contract that violates these provisions is to that
extent void.