Consumer advocates cheer new California law against algorithmic pricing collusion

Consumer advocates celebrated Gov. Gavin Newsom’s (D) enactment of a bill that would make it harder for companies to use AI-powered algorithms in collectively setting prices, amid what civil society groups viewed as a less-than-ideal legislative haul this year in California.

“AB 325 updates California’s antitrust laws to address algorithmic collusion. It bans pricing algorithms trained on nonpublic competitor data and makes it easier to bring antitrust claims under the Cartwright Act,” the Consumer Federation of America wrote in an...