CalChamber Adds Bills on Housing, Digital Ads, Pricing Algorithms, Climate Tax to Job Killer...

The California Chamber of Commerce yesterday added four bills to its 2024 Job Killer List.

They are:

• AB 2230 (Bennett; D-Ventura)Worsens Housing Crisis. Substantially shuts down the production of housing in California by blocking the inflow of crucial capital that nearly all housing production relies on. The Cartwright Act already protects against price fixing so expanding it as contemplated by this bill is unnecessary and will have the unintended consequence of making any return on investment a crime.
• AB 2829 (Papan; D-San Mateo)Tax on Digital Advertising Revenue. Implements a new tax on digital ads of 5%. In addition to increasing taxes on businesses, it is likely unconstitutional.
• SB 1154 (Hurtado; D-Sanger)California Preventing Algorithmic Collusion Act of 2024. Prohibits a person from using or distributing pricing algorithms that use, incorporate, or were trained on "nonpublic competitor data" which is wholly unnecessary given that collusion is already illegal under existing law. Worse yet, the bill actually creates substantial confusion and uncertainty for businesses as to what is a lawful pricing algorithm as opposed to price fixing due to vague and overbroad standards, imposes onerous reporting requirements, and grants the Attorney General (AG) authority to request these reports detailing a business's use of pricing algorithms for any reason and without any regard to whether the business is alleged to have behaved anticompetitively or harmed consumers. The bill also allows the AG to share the report with a third party to decipher the information reported. When combined with the aggressive liability provisions and the inevitable costs imposed on all but the smallest of businesses, the bill invariably will have a sweeping, chilling effect on price competition among businesses across all industries.
• SB 1497 (Menjivar; D-Los Angeles)Polluters Pay Climate Cost Recovery Act of 2024. Imposes an ill-defined tax on a broad set of entities that will increase costs for goods and services in California.

Two Bills Pass Assembly Committee

Job killer bills AB 2374 and AB 2499 passed the Assembly Judiciary Committee yesterday.

AB 2374 (Haney; D-San Francisco)imposes new statutory joint liability on business of any size that contracts for janitorial services if a contractor violates the Displaced Janitor Opportunity Act and places new mandates on those businesses that should be assigned to the contractor.

AB 2499 (Schiavo; D-Chatsworth)significantly expands uncapped leave related to crimes and lowers threshold of applicability to employers with just five employees.