California Gas Stations Used AI to Coordinate Prices Illegally, Lawsuit Alleges Across Multiple Chains

California gas stations deployed an AI system that coordinated prices across multiple chains. The system optimized for revenue. Revenue increased. Lawyers filed a lawsuit calling this price-fixing. The system was doing what it was built to do.

Price coordination through algorithmic means has happened before. Taxi apps, airline booking, hotel chains. The pattern is familiar: optimization creates uniformity, uniformity looks like collusion, collusion is illegal. Nobody filed charges until the revenue got obvious enough to sue.

The gas stations will argue the system was independent. They will argue optimization is not conspiracy. The AI will not argue anything. It will continue optimizing until told to stop. By then the category will have expanded to include whatever happened next.