{"id":380194,"date":"2026-06-30T03:51:21","date_gmt":"2026-06-30T03:51:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/380194\/"},"modified":"2026-06-30T03:51:21","modified_gmt":"2026-06-30T03:51:21","slug":"ai-is-helping-gas-stations-collude-to-raise-california-fuel-prices-lawsuit-says-8","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/380194\/","title":{"rendered":"AI is helping gas stations collude to raise California fuel prices, lawsuit says"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">A federal lawsuit alleges that AI software has permitted gas station operators in California to unlawfully collude and raise prices at the pump.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">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.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">RELATED:<a href=\"https:\/\/www.livenowfox.com\/news\/newsom-warns-californians-avoid-chevron-over-high-gas-prices\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"elm:link;elmt:article_link;slk:Newsom warns Californians to avoid Chevron over high gas prices;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;context_link&quot;,&quot;yModuleName&quot;:&quot;content-canvas&quot;,&quot;yLinkText&quot;:&quot;Newsom warns Californians to avoid Chevron over high gas prices&quot;}\" class=\"link \">Newsom warns Californians to avoid Chevron over high gas prices<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Kalibrate is also accused in the lawsuit of collusion tied to claims of price-fixing conducted through AI.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">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.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">RELATED:<a href=\"https:\/\/www.livenowfox.com\/news\/where-gas-prices-highest-lowest-us\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"elm:link;elmt:article_link;slk:Here&#039;s where gas prices are highest and lowest in the US;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;context_link&quot;,&quot;yModuleName&quot;:&quot;content-canvas&quot;,&quot;yLinkText&quot;:&quot;Here&#039;&quot;}\" class=\"link \">Here&#8217;s where gas prices are highest and lowest in the US<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Worries over algorithmic pricing led to California Gov. Gavin Newsom signing a bill in 2026 saying that state antitrust laws pertain to pricing algorithms.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Defendants in the lawsuit, including BP, Speedway, EG America, Walmart and Albertsons, operate over 1,700 gas stations in California.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">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<p>What are the current gas prices in California?<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">By the numbers<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">As of Monday, the average<a href=\"https:\/\/gasprices.aaa.com\/?state=CA\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"elm:link;elmt:article_link;slk:gas price in California;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;context_link&quot;,&quot;yModuleName&quot;:&quot;content-canvas&quot;,&quot;yLinkText&quot;:&quot;gas price in California&quot;}\" class=\"link \"> gas price in California<\/a> is $5.45 per gallon, according to AAA.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">The Source<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">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","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A federal lawsuit alleges that AI software has permitted gas station operators in California to unlawfully collude and&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":380195,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[7,9,8,50759,153735,7738,147,16387,457],"class_list":["post-380194","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-california","tag-california","tag-california-headlines","tag-california-news","tag-class-action-lawsuit","tag-current-gas-prices","tag-federal-lawsuit","tag-gas-prices","tag-gas-station","tag-gavin-newsom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/380194","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=380194"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/380194\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/380195"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=380194"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=380194"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=380194"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}