Consumers have sued a range of petrol station operators in California, including Albertsons, Speedway and Walmart, for allegedly using an AI-powered system to artificially raise prices.
The suit, which is the first filed under a new state law around price-fixing, comes at a time when rates are already inflated due to hostilities in the Middle East, in the US state where gas prices are highest.
California last year passed AB 325, a law that prohibits the use of shared pricing algorithms to “restrain trade or commerce”.
Automated pricing
In the lawsuit, filed on Monday in federal court in Sacramento, the plaintiffs allege the named companies used Kalibrate Fuel Pricing, a tool that allegedly requires petrol station operators to hand over cost and volume data, so that Kalibrate can make automated pricing decisions.
