CA lawmakers target anti-competitive business practices

(The Center Square) – New antitrust legislation introduced in the California Assembly seeks to curtail corporate activity that some lawmakers characterize as anti-competitive. “The Compete Act is about providing competition and opportunity in markets, and it’s about creating a prosperous, equitable and transparent economy,” Assembly Majority Leader Cecilia Aguiar-Curry, D-Winters and author of the bill, said during a press conference on Tuesday afternoon. “It’s about choices for consumers, power for workers, growth for small business, and it’s about markets built on merit, not power.” Assembly Bill 1776 updates California law by building on the rules established by the Cartwright Act of 1907, Aguiar-Curry told reporters at the Capitol in Sacramento. The Cartwright Act was passed long before the modern economy emerged, advocates for the Compete Act said Tuesday. “Markets have changed,” Aguiar-Curry said during the press conference. “Industries have consolidated. When competition dries u