#kalibrate

Judd Legum at Popular Information:

A new federal lawsuit alleges that gas station companies across California are engaged in an illegal conspiracy, powered by AI software, to raise prices. The class action lawsuit claims the corporate owners of over 1,700 California gas stations — including Marathon Petroleum, 7-Eleven, Walmart, and Circle K — are using Kalibrate, an AI-powered platform, as part of “a conspiracy to extinguish retail price competition.” Kalibrate, the complaint argues, “relies on the data of competing gas stations to coordinate high prices and wring more money from the pockets of consumers throughout the state.”

According to the complaint, gas stations that use Kalibrate software charge between 6 cents and 30 cents more per gallon. In California, “a single cent increase at the pump will drain a whopping $134 million from California drivers’ wallets every year across the state.” As the lawsuit notes, gas stations traditionally “competed for customers by aggressively undercutting one another’s retail prices.” Independent operators “chase one another’s prices down as far as they were able (taking account of their costs), in the hope of convincing more drivers to fuel at their pumps.”

Kalibrate encourages gas station owners to abandon this system and allow their AI software to automatically determine prices. The software, known as Kalibrate Fuel Pricing, connects directly to gas station signs and pumps. “Kalibrate promises that if gas stations surrender their pricing decisions and competitively sensitive cost and volume data to Kalibrate Fuel Pricing, the software will enable them to avoid competing with other area stations and to charge higher prices to consumers,” the lawsuit alleges. The lawsuit quotes extensively from Kalibrate’s interface and marketing materials. In one striking example, the plaintiffs highlight a feature that allows gas stations to coordinate a “restoration,” which the complaint describes as “a phenomenon where nearly all gas stations in an area raise their prices contemporaneously and by a large amount.” Kalibrate’s software “includes a feature that allows customers to initiate or join these market-wide price hikes.” Kalibrate’s marketing materials warn gas station owners that when faced with “falling oil prices… it’s critical to avoid a race to the bottom.” The company advises gas stations to avoid “sacrificing margin” to increase their volume of sales. [...]

The new law at the heart of the lawsuit

The lawsuit against Kalibrate and its customers is based on AB 325, an amendment to California’s antitrust laws that went into effect on January 1, 2026. Under AB 325, it is “unlawful for a person to use or distribute a common pricing algorithm as part of a contract, combination in the form of a trust, or conspiracy to restrain trade or commerce in violation of this chapter.” A “common pricing algorithm” is defined broadly as “any methodology, including a computer, software, or other technology, used by two or more persons, that uses competitor data to recommend, align, stabilize, set, or otherwise influence a price or commercial term.” “Kalibrate Fuel Pricing is software used by two or more persons that uses competitor data to recommend, align, stabilize, set, and influence gasoline prices,” the complaint alleges.

For a cover, may i offer the show must go on by Burn the Ballroom? I also like Magaziine’s cry me a river with Eboni Lauren and Arielle Kasnetz.

I have No Idea what caused it lmao but thought you should know.