California’s COMPETE Act: A return to the era of ‘worthy men’ antitrust

Babette Boliek July 16, 2026

The Orange County Register View Original Source

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California lawmakers are on the verge of resurrecting a long-buried antitrust philosophy—one that once punished consumers in the name of protecting “worthy men.”

Assembly Bill 1776, the so-called COMPETE Act, is marketed as a modernization of state antitrust law. In reality, it is a wholesale abandonment of the consumer welfare standard (CWS), the objective framework that has anchored antitrust enforcement for nearly half a century. If enacted, the bill would replace clear economic analysis with a free-floating mandate to protect “all trade participants,” inviting judges to pick winners and losers based on subjective sympathies rather than measurable harm.

Read the full piece here.