California Class Action Alleges AI-Powered Price Coordination at the Pump, Citing New Antitrust Law

Three California residents filed a federal class-action lawsuit on June 22, 2026, in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of California, accusing Kalibrate and major fuel retailers including BP, 7-Eleven, Walmart, Marathon Petroleum, Circle K, and Albertsons of using AI-driven pricing software to coordinate gasoline prices. The complaint claims the Kalibrate Fuel Pricing platform aggregates confidential competitor data to recommend or set prices across stations, resulting in surcharges of 6 to 30 cents per gallon in affected markets—on top of California's already highest-in-the-nation average of $5.56 per gallon.

The suit invokes California's newly effective AB 325 (January 1, 2026), which explicitly prohibits the use of “common pricing algorithms” that rely on competitor data to influence prices as part of an antitrust conspiracy. Plaintiffs argue this represents a digital evolution of traditional price-fixing, enabled by software that connects directly to pumps and signs and allows simultaneous price increases across a market. They seek injunctive relief and damages for an estimated class of millions of drivers.

Major outlets including Reuters, The Guardian, and the San Francisco Chronicle independently reported the filing, noting that defendants either declined comment or did not respond. Court filings and Bloomberg-sourced complaint excerpts confirm the named plaintiffs (Joel Casciani, Paola Hartman, Crystal Turnbough) and the scope covering over 1,700 stations. Kalibrate’s own marketing materials tout AI optimization that has lifted average weekly profits by $331 per site across 25,000 locations globally, underscoring the tool’s commercial impact.

The case arrives amid California’s persistent energy-price pressures from refining capacity constraints and regulations, but the lawsuit isolates algorithmic coordination as an additional, allegedly unlawful factor. It also highlights emerging regulatory scrutiny of AI pricing tools across retail sectors, with AB 325 serving as one of the first state-level statutes directly targeting such systems.