California drivers have filed a class action against major gas station chains and the AI vendor they hired to set prices.
The lawsuit, filed in Sacramento federal court, names BP, Circle K, Marathon Petroleum, 7-Eleven, Walmart, Albertsons, and Kalibrate as defendants. Kalibrate's software gathers pricing data from nearby competitors and adjusts rates to maximize margins. The complaint says it has added as much as 30 cents per gallon in some areas, with some stations reaching as much as $7 a gallon. The plaintiffs allege violations of the Cartwright Act, California's main antitrust law, and Assembly Bill 325, a law that took effect at the start of 2026 to target algorithmic price fixing. Damages are unspecified.
The case echoes the RealPage antitrust litigation, where landlords using the same rent-optimization software were accused of coordinated pricing without explicit collusion. California drivers already pay an average of $5.58 per gallon against a national average of $3.93. If courts accept the theory that shared software constitutes conspiracy, AB 325 gets its first real enforcement test.
The complaint is blunt: "defendants have conspired to put an end to competition, joining an AI-powered trust to ensure that no matter where a driver turns, the price for gasoline is artificially high." Whether that language survives a motion to dismiss is the actual question.