California's COMPETE Act extends state antitrust law to single-firm conduct
Newsom signed AB 1776 on September 30, 2026, giving California authority over unilateral conduct, breaking with the federal monopoly-maintenance standard. Dominant firms now face a state-only exposure track.
On September 30, 2026, California Governor Gavin Newsom signed AB 1776, the Competition and Opportunity in Markets for a Prosperous, Equitable and Transparent Economy Act, the latest amendment to the state's antitrust statute. According to Wilson Sonsini's summary, the law extends California's competition law to reach single-firm conduct — categories historically governed almost exclusively by federal antitrust law under the monopoly-maintenance framework, which requires proving that market power was acquired or maintained through exclusionary conduct.
Why sophisticated counsel should care: for dominant platforms, aggregators, logistics networks, telecom carriers, and large retailers, the practical consequence is that conduct previously assessed only against federal precedent must now be mapped onto California's statutory tests and the state's own market definitions. That creates forum asymmetry, since California and the federal government can reach different outcomes on the same distribution, self-preferencing, or contracting practices, and California enforcement or private suits can proceed on a different timeline.
What to watch next: AG and plaintiff-bar theories of how the new single-firm provisions are applied, any early complaints or AG guidance, and whether other states follow the same template. Clients with California-facing operations and documented unilateral conduct should reassess exposure and litigation posture now. This summary rests on a single law-firm alert; the enacted text, effective date, and any exemptions should be confirmed against the statute.