California drivers sue gas stations for allegedly using AI to fix prices
California drivers filed a proposed class-action lawsuit alleging that major gas station operators used an artificial intelligence pricing tool from Kalibrate to coordinate prices and inflate fuel costs by up to 30 cents per gallon, violating California's Cartwright Act and Assembly Bill 325.
What happened
Gas station operators including BP, Marathon Petroleum, 7-Eleven, Walmart, Albertsons and Circle K were sued on June 22, 2026 by California drivers in federal court in Sacramento.
The complaint alleges the defendants used an artificial intelligence tool from Kalibrate that automatically adjusted prices based on shared confidential data from competing stations to coordinate high prices and reduce competition.
Reported impact
According to the complaint, gas prices rose as much as 30 cents a gallon in areas where high percentages of stations use the AI tool, with diesel rising as much as 33 cents per gallon.
Each additional penny per gallon costs California drivers approximately $134 million per year, the complaint said. Californians pay the nation's highest gas prices, averaging $5.58 per gallon, with some areas reaching above $7 per gallon.
Index analysis
The lawsuit alleged the defendants violated California's Cartwright Act and Assembly Bill 325, a California law that took effect January 1 and prohibits the use of shared pricing algorithms.
The case is among the first brought under AB 325. More than 60 bills targeting algorithmic pricing are pending across more than half of U.S. states. The Division of Petroleum Market Oversight issued subpoenas to some station owners over elevated prices in May 2026.
Governance controls
Assembly Bill 325 took effect on January 1, 2026 and was intended to crack down on algorithmic price fixing.
The Justice Department's antitrust division has focused on shared pricing platforms, noting that competitors routing pricing decisions through a common algorithm can constitute a hub-and-spoke conspiracy even without direct communication.
Classification
Sources and evidence
This record was researched and written by the Index, based on the following original reporting.