SB 763 (Hurtado D) Conspiracy against trade: punishment.

Current Text: Introduced: 2/21/2025
Status: 4/9/2025-From committee: Do pass and re-refer to Com. on PUB. S. (Ayes 11. Noes 2.) (April
8). Re-referred to Com. on PUB. S.
Location: 4/9/2025-S. PUB. S.
Summary: Existing law, known as the Cartwright Act, generally regulates trusts, which the act defines
as a combination of capital, skill, or acts by 2 or more persons for certain purposes, including to create
or carry out restrictions in trade or commerce. If a violator of the act is a corporation, the act punishes
the violator by a fine of the greater of an amount not more than $1,000,000 and an amount related to
the pecuniary gain from the violation or the pecuniary loss to another by the violation, as prescribed. If
a violator of the act is an individual, the act punishes the violator by imprisonment of one, 2, or 3 years
in a state prison or county jail, as specified, imprisonment of not more than one year in a county jail, by
a fine of not more than the greater of $250,000 and an amount related to the pecuniary gain from the violation or the pecuniary loss to another by the violation, or by both a fine and imprisonment. This bill
would increase the fine described above with respect to corporate violators to $100,000,000. The bill
would also increase change the term of imprisonment in a state prison or county jail described above
to not more than 2, 3, or 5 years and would increase the fine described above with respect to an
individual violator to $1,000,000. By increasing the maximum term an individual violator could serve in
a county prison, this bill would impose a state-mandated local program. The bill would also impose an
additional civil penalty of $1,000,000 on a person, corporation, or business entity for violating the act,
as prescribed. This bill contains other related provisions and other existing laws.