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article <\/p>\n article <\/p>\n
FILE-High gas prices are displayed at a Chevron gas station on May 11, 2026 in Pasadena, California. (Photo by Mario Tama\/Getty Images) <\/p>\n
A federal lawsuit alleges that AI software has permitted gas station operators in California to unlawfully collude and raise prices at the pump.\u00a0<\/p>\n
A proposed class action lawsuit obtained by The Associated Press claims that gas station companies including Marathon and Circle K have violated California\u2019s antitrust law through Kalibrate, a fuel-pricing software system used across the world.\u00a0<\/p>\n
RELATED:\u00a0Newsom warns Californians to avoid Chevron over high gas prices<\/a><\/p>\n Kalibrate is also accused in the lawsuit of collusion tied to claims of price-fixing conducted through AI.<\/p>\n Citing the lawsuit, the AP reported that research into algorithmic fuel-pricing software determined that average gas price increases were roughly 6 cents per gallon, increasing to as much as 30 cents per gallon in markets where stations use the technology.\u00a0<\/p>\n RELATED:\u00a0Here’s where gas prices are highest and lowest in the US<\/a><\/p>\n Worries over algorithmic pricing led to California Gov. Gavin Newsom signing a bill in 2026 saying that state antitrust laws pertain to pricing algorithms.\u00a0<\/p>\n Defendants in the lawsuit, including BP, Speedway, EG America, Walmart and Albertsons, operate over 1,700 gas stations in California.<\/p>\n According to the AP, this recent lawsuit seeks to represent California drivers who purchased gas at local stations using Kalibrate software since June 2022.<\/p>\n What are the current gas prices in California? <\/p>\n By the numbers:<\/p>\n As of Monday, the average gas price in California<\/a> is $5.45 per gallon, according to AAA.<\/p>\n The Source: Information for this story was provided by The Associated Press, which references a lawsuit on the AI tool and AAA. This story was reported from Washington, D.C.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Consumer<\/a>Economy<\/a>California<\/a> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"article FILE-High gas prices are displayed at a Chevron gas station on May 11, 2026 in Pasadena, California.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":380161,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[1184,7,9,8,7948,4263,100,1181,6757],"class_list":["post-380160","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-california","tag-ca","tag-california","tag-california-headlines","tag-california-news","tag-consumer","tag-money","tag-news","tag-us","tag-us-economy"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/380160","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=380160"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/380160\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/380161"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=380160"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=380160"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=380160"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}