Assembly Majority Leader Aguiar-Curry Responds to CalChamber's Multi-Million Dollar Misinformation Campaign Against AB 1776, Her Bill to Protect California’s Small Businesses[...]

• Gibson Martucci
• 916-319-3104
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(SACRAMENTO, CA) - Assembly Majority Leader Cecilia Aguiar-Curry (D-Winters) is disappointed in California Chamber of Commerce's newly launched statewide advertising campaign opposing Assembly Bill 1776 (AB 1776). Aguiar-Curry is calling it a multi-million-dollar misinformation effort relying on outdated information, misleading claims, and industry-funded economic projections instead of facts.

"CalChamber is spending millions of dollars trying to convince Californians and my legislative colleagues that protecting fair competition will somehow hurt honest businesses. The reality is exactly the opposite. AB 1776 is designed to protect the thousands of California businesses that play by the rules from the handful of dominant corporations that abuse their market power to squeeze out competitors," said Aguiar-Curry, the bill's author.

"It's disappointing to see CalChamber, an organization that's supposed to represent all California businesses, fighting for a status quo that leaves more than 99 percent of its members vulnerable to predatory mega-corporations," continued Aguiar-Curry. "For the legislative process to function, every stakeholder needs to be engaged and willing to do the work to improve proposals intended to protect our people. We haven't gotten a good-faith effort from California's business associations on AB 1776. We've spent dozens of hours asking for their input in meeting after meeting on how to better protect innocent parties under the bill. But instead of providing meaningful feedback, they're making claims that simply don't match the facts."

AB 1776 solves a very real problem in California. It closes a significant loophole in the state's antitrust laws that does not exist in 45 other states' laws or federal law. While California's Cartwright Act allows legal action against two or more companies that seek to undercut competition, it does not clearly prohibit the same anti-competitive conduct when carried out by a single dominant corporation. As a result, California lacks a critical legal tool to protect consumers, workers, and small businesses from abusive corporate practices that reduce competition, drive up prices, and suppress wages.

"When a few corporations stop trying to provide a better product or service and instead use their power to gain control of entire industries, they influence every aspect of our economy," said Aguiar-Curry. "This means higher prices, lower wages, and fewer consumer options for Californians. Just drive around your own neighborhood and you'll see it happening in real life with empty storefronts."

Instead of addressing this gap in California law, CalChamber's campaign relies on outdated information and misleading claims that fail to reflect AB 1776 as it exists today. Among them:

They claim supporters have failed to identify a problem. However, this bill codifies unanimous recommendations issued by the California Law Revision Commission following years of expert study and public input examining the impacts of increasing market concentration across industries. Since the 1990s, Californians have watched dominant corporations across multiple industries consolidate markets, reduce competition, and exercise unprecedented control over suppliers, workers, and consumers. Strengthening California's antitrust laws is about ensuring businesses succeed because they innovate and compete, not because they can use their size to shut everyone else out. Once competition is gone and small- and medium-sized businesses are shuttered, it is hard to reestablish businesses that used to be the core of California communities.

They claim the bill will hurt small businesses. Small businesses are exempt from the bill. Small and medium-sized businesses stand to benefit the most from stronger protections against dominant firms that use their market power to suppress competition and dictate unfair terms. The businesses most threatened by AB 1776 are those that rely on anticompetitive conduct, not the businesses competing fairly every day.

They claim this bill threatens consumer discounts or price-matching programs. AB 1776 does not prohibit these cost-saving tools. Those are tools that businesses use to compete fairly with each other, and this bill is fundamentally about promoting competition.

They claim AB 1776 will cost California's economy nearly $1 trillion. That estimate is biased and not based on the bill. That extraordinary figure comes from an economic analysis commissioned by opponents of the bill, not from an independent government or academic review. The projection is based on a series of assumptions made on unrelated legislation in other states that supporters of the bill-and numerous antitrust experts-strongly dispute. Californians deserve serious debate based on objective analysis, not speculative worst-case scenarios produced for a political campaign.

They claim academics oppose the bill. AB 1776 has academic support. CalChamber fails to disclose the letter it cites was written in response to a substantially different version of AB 1776. Since then, the bill has undergone revisions after extensive consultation with antitrust experts, businesses, and other stakeholders. There is a letter of support for the bill signed by academics from prestigious institutions around the country. CalChamber also fails to disclose potential financial conflicts involving some signatories and major technology companies that have faced recent federal antitrust scrutiny. For example, the organization that produced CalChamber's biased economic analysis of AB 1776 also funded recent research by a professor who organized support for the letter. That organization, in turn, receives significant funding from many of the same major technology companies facing federal antitrust litigation.

The stakes extend far beyond a disagreement over one bill. Behind much of California's affordability crisis is a simple reality-too few corporations control too many industries. Over decades of market consolidation, dominant corporations have gained unprecedented power to raise prices, suppress wages, reduce consumer choice, and make it harder for entrepreneurs and small businesses to compete. Grocery workers and tradespersons who once could afford to buy homes are increasingly priced out of the communities they serve. Public safety is affected when fire departments face rising costs and delays obtaining critical equipment because only a handful of companies dominate the marketplace. In the entertainment industry, growing consolidation has narrowed opportunities for creative workers and independent businesses throughout Los Angeles. Across California's economy, fewer competitors increasingly mean higher costs and fewer opportunities.

"Most California businesses work hard, play by the rules, and just want a fair shot. Those are the businesses this bill is designed to protect," concluded Aguiar-Curry. "At the end of the day, the question is whether we're going to stand up for the thousands of California businesses trying to compete fairly or are we going to continue protecting the handful of corporations that use their power to squash competition. I know what side I'm on."

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Assemblymember Cecilia Aguiar-Curry represents California's 4th Assembly District, which includes all of Lake, Colusa, Napa, and Yolo Counties, and part of Sonoma County. She serves as the Assembly Majority Leader and Chair of the California Women's Legislative Caucus.