{"id":182132,"date":"2026-02-17T23:39:08","date_gmt":"2026-02-17T23:39:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/182132\/"},"modified":"2026-02-17T23:39:08","modified_gmt":"2026-02-17T23:39:08","slug":"business-groups-oppose-undermining-of-californias-antitrust-law-in-ab-1776-advocacy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/182132\/","title":{"rendered":"Business Groups Oppose Undermining of California\u2019s Antitrust Law in AB 1776 &#8211; Advocacy"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>For Immediate Release<br \/>Contact: John Myers<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/advocacy.calchamber.com\/2026\/02\/17\/business-groups-oppose-undermining-of-californias-antitrust-law-in-ab-1776\/mailto:john.myers@calchamber.com\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">john.myers@calchamber.com<\/a> | <a href=\"https:\/\/advocacy.calchamber.com\/2026\/02\/17\/business-groups-oppose-undermining-of-californias-antitrust-law-in-ab-1776\/mailto:press@calchamber.com\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">press@calchamber.com<\/a><\/p>\n<p>(Feb. 17, 2026) Sacramento, CA \u2013 The California Chamber of Commerce joined a broad coalition representing nearly every sector of the California economy today in releasing the following statement on the introduction of AB 1776 \u2013 an extreme proposal to amend the state\u2019s antitrust law and create a new Single Firm Conduct policy.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAB 1776 would enshrine in state law the rushed and reckless proposals brought forward by the California Law Revision Commission. These changes would impact nearly every business across the state, regardless of size, imposing sweeping ideas to solve problems never actually identified after months of Commission work.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe business community believes in the importance of a fair marketplace. But we also believe legislators should ask why no economic analysis was conducted. They should also seek to validate the assertion that a lack of state-specific rules governing the conduct of any single company has actually harmed Californians through reduced competition.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAB 1776 disappointingly adopts the Commission\u2019s unfinished work by relying on poorly defined terms, an absence of standardized tests for wrongdoing, and a presumption of illegal activity when it comes to a number of business practices that are widely considered typical and benefit consumers by offering better services and prices.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAB 1776 would significantly deepen California\u2019s affordability crisis, driving costly and unnecessary litigation and consumer costs ever higher and decimating the state\u2019s innovation economy and the jobs that depend on its success.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The following businesses, advocacy organizations, and local chambers of commerce joined CalChamber today in its comments on the bill:<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">TechNet<br \/>California Retailers Association<br \/>California Association of REALTORS<br \/>Civil Justice Association of California<br \/>Silicon Valley Leadership Group<br \/>California Food Producers<br \/>Motion Pictures Association<br \/>California Life Sciences<br \/>Biocom<br \/>Computer &amp; Communications Industry Association (CCIA)<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">West Ventura County Business Alliance<br \/>Murrieta\/Wildomar Chamber of Commerce<br \/>North San Diego Business Chamber<br \/>Oceanside Chamber of Commerce<br \/>San Juan Capistrano Chamber of Commerce<br \/>Greater Bakersfield Chamber<br \/>Colusa County Chamber<br \/>Carlsbad Chamber of Commerce<br \/>Greater High Desert Chamber of Commerce<br \/>Fontana Chamber of Commerce<br \/>Yorba Linda Chamber of Commerce<br \/>Orange County Business Council<br \/>Torrance Area Chamber of Commerce<br \/>Lodi Chamber of Commerce<br \/>Long Beach Area Chamber of Commerce<br \/>Laguna Niguel Chamber of Commerce<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"For Immediate ReleaseContact: John Myersjohn.myers@calchamber.com | press@calchamber.com (Feb. 17, 2026) Sacramento, CA \u2013 The California Chamber of Commerce&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":101771,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[86277,7,9,8,55409],"class_list":{"0":"post-182132","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-california","8":"tag-antitrust","9":"tag-california","10":"tag-california-headlines","11":"tag-california-news","12":"tag-news-releases"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/182132","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=182132"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/182132\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/101771"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=182132"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=182132"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=182132"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}