Capitol Briefs: Antitrust, elections and online safety

It was another jam-packed week, with the June primary election blessedly almost upon us and the deadline for bills to clear their house of origin.

Antitrust bills move forward: The Assembly endorsed AB 1776, a bill authored by Assembly Majority Leader Cecilia Aguiar Curry (D-Winters) that would amend California’s antitrust law to apply to anti-competitive behavior by just a single company. The Cartwright Act currently applies only to activity by two or more companies. The bill, which has received strong opposition from the California Chamber of Commerce and other business groups, passed on a 45-17 margin and now heads to the Senate.

The Senate, meanwhile, approved SB 1365 a bill from Sen. Ben Allen (D-Santa Monica) that would allow attorneys for cities with over 750,000 residents to file civil or criminal Cartwright Act claims on behalf of their cities and citizens in cases of alleged price gouging by landlords. It moves to the Assembly.

One antitrust measure that won’t be moving on this year is SB 1074, a bill from Sen. Scott Winer (D-San Francisco) that would have banned California tech companies with more than $1 trillion in market capitalization and 100 million or more monthly users in the U.S. from promoting their own products and content ahead of smaller competitors. The measure died in the Senate Privacy, Digital Technologies, and Consumer Protection Committee in April.

Newsom signs elections security bill: On Wednesday Gov. Gavin Newsom signed SB 73, a bill authored by Sen. Sabrina Cervantes (D-Riverside) that, among several things, makes it a crime for law enforcement to taking cast ballot away from election officials.

The law is a direct response to Riverside County Sheriff and Republican gubernatorial candidate Chad Bianco’s seizure of 60,000 ballots from his county voter registrar’s office in March.

The law also allows the Attorney General and Secretary of State to file suit against anyone who takes ballots from a registrar and for those government officials to override the authority of local election officials who might allow law enforcement or others to disrupt the voting process.

Online safety bills move forward: A suite of bills aimed at improving internet safety for minors also cleared their houses of origin. Among the notable measures:

AB 1709, a bill from Assemblymember Josh Lowenthal (D-Long Beach) that would bar children under 16 from having accounts on social media platforms that use addictive feeds.

AB 1644, a measure from Assemblymember Al Muratsuchi(D-Torrance) that would bar smartphones in TK-8 classrooms and encourage high schools to do the same.

AB 2023, authored by Assemblymember Buffy Wicks (D-Oakland) and Rebecca Bauer-Kahan (D-Orinda) that would establish child safety standards for AI companion chatbots. A companion bill,

SB 1119 from Sen. Steve Padilla (D-San Diego), also passed in the Senate.

Other bills of note heading to the next chamber:

Insurance
SB 1301 from Sen. Ben Allen (D-Santa Monica), a bill that would require home insurers to provide a notice of nonrenewal three months before dropping a policyholder’s coverage, require the notice to detail why the policyholder is being dropped and provide a path to maintain their current coverage through property repairs and remediations.

Privacy
SB 923 from Sen. Josh Becker (D-Menlo Park), a bill that would allow consumers to request deletion of personal information businesses obtained from third parties, including data brokers, and require online-only businesses to provide clear and accessible tools for consumers to access, correct, or delete their data.

AB 1542 from Assemblymember Chris Ward (D-SAN Diego), a proposal that would bar businesses from selling or sharing sensitive personal information with third parties.

The Assembly also approved Ward’s AB 2564, which would ban businesses from using surveillance pricing, or using a consumer’s personal information to change prices based on individualized data profiles.

SB 1150 from Sen. Brian Jones (R-San Diego), a proposal that would require hospitals and treatment facilities providing cancer care to post a clear notice informing patients that cancer diagnoses must be reported to the California Department of Public Health and that their personal health data will be included in the California Cancer Registry.

Animals
AB 2344, a bill authored by Assemblymember Chris Haney (D-San Francisco) that would allow prosecutors to petition a court to require the forfeiture of animals seized in abuse cases so they can be adopted sooner instead of being forced to remain in shelters while criminal cases move through the court system.