FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
For media inquiries, please contact: Reggie Rucker, ILSR Communications Director
Washington, D.C. (May 28, 2026) — Ron Knox, senior researcher and policy advocate at the Institute for Local Self-Reliance (ILSR), issued the following statement commending yesterday’s historic vote by the California State Assembly to pass the COMPETE Act, sponsored by Assembly Majority Leader Cecilia Aguiar-Curry. The bill would amend the state’s 119-year-old antitrust law to prohibit illegal monopolization and abuses by powerful corporations.
“Yesterday’s vote by the California Assembly to pass the COMPETE Act was a landmark moment in the history of antitrust law and enforcement in the state. By sending the bill to the Senate, California is now that much closer to having the power to fight corporate monopolies’ power to raise prices for consumers and crush small businesses.
“The COMPETE Act will bring California in line with the 45 other states that currently ban illegal monopolization. It will also help protect Californian workers, shoppers, and small businesses from exploitation and abuse of market power by the state’s most powerful firms. Today, small businesses get squeezed by suppliers, distributors, and monopolistic middlemen that have crushed their ability to survive and thrive. After decades of pro-bigness court decisions, federal law offers little relief for many California small businesses. The reforms in the COMPETE Act will inject needed fairness in the state’s economy and ensure every business, not just the largest and most powerful, can compete on a level playing field.
“This has been a long time coming. Antitrust experts, scholars, and state officials have studied the need for an updated antitrust law in California for the past three years, culminating in the commonsense, consensus reforms in the COMPETE Act. This vote ensures the product of that hard work will move to the Senate.
“The COMPETE Act was at the top of the California Chamber of Commerce’s opposition list, and corporate lobbyists and their monopoly puppetmasters worked hard to undermine these commonsense reforms in the Assembly. But California lawmakers chose to stand side-by-side with working families and small businesses fighting to unrig the economy and support fair and open markets for all Californians.
“This vote would not have been possible without the dedicated leadership of Majority Leader Aguiar-Curry, and the incredible team of consumer, small business, and labor advocates supporting the bill. ILSR is proud to be a co-sponsor of the COMPETE Act, and we look forward to continuing to support this crucial bill in the Senate.”
For over five decades, ILSR has worked to advance policies that disperse economic power and strengthen local communities. In recent years, Knox has worked alongside allies to advocate for the introduction of an illegal monopolization standard in California before the California Law Revisions Commission.
With support from ILSR and other allies, California is now one step closer to enacting the strongest antimonopoly law in the country.
Ron Knox joined fellow advocates to demonstrate how the state can bolster its antitrust laws to benefit California citizens.
Ron Knox’s advocacy and analysis have helped allies push California towards crucial reforms to its antitrust law, the Cartwright Act.
ILSR's state-by-state guide to antitrust laws, and how those laws work to enable competition and level the playing field.
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About the Institute for Local Self-Reliance
The Institute for Local Self-Reliance (ILSR) is a national nonprofit research and educational organization founded in 1974. ILSR has a vision of thriving, diverse, equitable communities. To reach this vision, we dismantle concentrated power and equip changemakers to build communities with locally accountable power. We believe that democracy can only thrive when economic and political power is widely dispersed. Whether it’s fighting back against the outsize power of monopolies like Amazon or advocating to keep local renewable energy in the community that produced it, ILSR advocates for solutions that harness the power of citizens and communities.