A major expansion of California’s antitrust laws advanced in the state legislature Thursday as Gov. Gavin Newsom also proposed ramping up funding to crack down on anticompetitive business practices.
The bill (AB 1776) would extend the state’s Cartwright Act to cover conduct by individual companies, a shift from the law’s current focus on two or more companies. It heads next to a vote of the full Assembly sometime before the end of the month.
The Assembly Appropriations Committee advanced the measure on a party-line vote, with Democrats in support, as part of a whirlwind hearing on hundreds of pieces ...