Gov. Gavin Newsom signed legislation Wednesday expanding California’s antitrust laws to allow state and local prosecutors to pursue cases against an individual company alleged to have dominant market power and engaged in anticompetitive conduct — a change that drew competing claims about its potential effects on businesses, consumers and state finances.
The COMPETE Act, authored by Assembly Majority Leader Cecilia Aguiar-Curry, allows the California attorney general and district attorneys to pursue a single dominant corporation for alleged anticompetitive conduct, according to Economic Security California Action.
Amazon and Google are potential targets of AB 1776, according to the Connected Commerce Council.
Competing views on the new law
The California Chamber of Commerce opposed AB 1776, arguing the legislation is incompatible with federal antitrust law and could expose businesses to increased litigation.
CalChamber acknowledged after Newsom signed the bill that lawmakers had removed provisions it considered among the proposal’s most damaging.
Opposition during the legislative process also focused on potential fiscal and economic costs. A California Department of Finance staff analysis opposed the bill because it would result in “significant new state costs” not included in the 2026 Budget Act. The department cited unknown but potentially significant costs for state prosecutors.
The Computer & Communications Industry Association, a technology trade group that opposed the legislation, separately estimated AB 1776 could result in $670 billion in lost California GDP over a decade. That figure represents the trade group’s economic analysis rather than an independently established impact of the law.
Supporters see the legislation differently.
Economic Security California Action said AB 1776 modernizes an antitrust framework dating to 1907 and gives state officials additional authority to address conduct by dominant corporations.
Teri Olle, the organization’s vice president, said monopoly power can reduce consumer choices, increase prices and limit opportunities for workers and small businesses.
With Newsom’s signature, attention now turns from competing projections about AB 1776 to how California prosecutors use the new authority and what effects emerge as the law is implemented.
