Topline
A new lawsuit accuses a slew of gas station owners in California, including Walmart, Speedway and Albertsons, of using an AI tool developed by a company called Kalibrate to artificially inflate prices at the pump—causing prices to surge in the Golden State.
The lawsuit cites a bill signed into law last year banning the use of common pricing algorithms.
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Key Facts
The suit, filed on Monday in a federal court in Sacramento and first obtained by Bloomberg, accuses the companies of using Kalibrate Fuel Pricing—a tool the plaintiffs claim requires gas stations to hand over cost and volume data to the company, which then makes pricing decisions for them.
However, the plaintiffs allege this allows the stations to “avoid competing with other area stations and to charge higher prices to consumers.”
The suit also alleges Kalibrate has a feature called “restoration,” which allows most stations in a market to “contemporaneously implement large price hikes.”
In areas where a large number of gas stations are using Kalibrate, gas prices could artificially rise as much as 30 cents more per gallon, according to the suit.
The suit named Kalibrate’s parent company Knowledge Support Systems, as well as several gas station operators who it claims have used the system in the past.
Kalibrate did not immediately return a request for comment from Forbes.
Big Number
$5.52 per gallon. That’s the average price for gasoline in California as of Monday, according to data from GasBuddy. That’s the highest of any state in the country.
Which Gas Stations Were Accused of Using the Tool?
The suit identifies 1,732 stations in the state maintained by companies that allegedly used the Kalibrate Fuel Pricing system. This includes 1,000 ARCO stations, 16 TravelCenters, 90 EG America stations, 400 Circle K stations and 150 Speedways. It also includes 25 Walmart or Sam’s Club fueling stations, as well as 51 owned by grocery chain Albertsons.
Key Background
The suit was brought under AB 325, a bill signed into law in 2025 that prohibits the use of common pricing algorithms to “restrain trade or commerce.” The suit claims Kalibrate’s algorithm is illegal under the bill because it “uses competitor data to recommend, align, stabilize, set, and influence gasoline prices.”