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

Current Text: Amended: 7/14/2025 
Last Amend: 7/14/2025
Status: 7/17/2025-From committee: Do pass and re-refer to Com. on APPR. (Ayes 9. Noes 4.) (July 16).
Re-referred to Com. on APPR.
Location: 7/16/2025-A. APPR.
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. 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 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.