Existing law, known as the Cartwright Act, generally regulates trusts, which the act defines as a combination of capital, skill, or acts by 2 or more persons for certain purposes, including to create or carry out restrictions in trade or commerce. If a violator of the act is a corporation, the act punishes the violator by a fine of the greater of an amount not more than $1,000,000 and an amount related to the pecuniary gain from the violation or the pecuniary loss to another by the violation, as prescribed. If a violator of the act is an individual, the act punishes the violator by imprisonment of one, 2, or 3 years in a state prison or county jail, as specified, imprisonment of not more than one year in a county jail, by a fine of not more than the greater of $250,000 and an amount related to the pecuniary gain from the violation or the pecuniary loss to another by the violation, or by both a fine and imprisonment.

This bill would increase the fine described above with respect to corporate violators to $6,000,000. The bill would also increase the fine described above with respect to an individual violator to $1,000,000. The bill would impose an additional civil penalty of $1,000,000 on a person, corporation, or business entity for violating the act, as prescribed. The bill would also make a technical change.