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		<ns0:Id>20250SB__076395CHP</ns0:Id>
		<ns0:VersionNum>95</ns0:VersionNum>
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				<ns0:ActionText>INTRODUCED</ns0:ActionText>
				<ns0:ActionDate>2025-02-21</ns0:ActionDate>
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			<ns0:Action>
				<ns0:ActionText>AMENDED_SENATE</ns0:ActionText>
				<ns0:ActionDate>2025-05-23</ns0:ActionDate>
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				<ns0:ActionText>AMENDED_ASSEMBLY</ns0:ActionText>
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				<ns0:ActionText>CHAPTERED</ns0:ActionText>
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				<ns0:ActionText>APPROVED</ns0:ActionText>
				<ns0:ActionDate>2025-10-06</ns0:ActionDate>
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			<ns0:Action>
				<ns0:ActionText>FILED</ns0:ActionText>
				<ns0:ActionDate>2025-10-06</ns0:ActionDate>
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		<ns0:LegislativeInfo>
			<ns0:SessionYear>2025</ns0:SessionYear>
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			<ns0:MeasureType>SB</ns0:MeasureType>
			<ns0:MeasureNum>763</ns0:MeasureNum>
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			<ns0:ChapterNum>426</ns0:ChapterNum>
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		<ns0:AuthorText authorType="LEAD_AUTHOR">Introduced by Senator Hurtado</ns0:AuthorText>
		<ns0:Authors>
			<ns0:Legislator>
				<ns0:Contribution>LEAD_AUTHOR</ns0:Contribution>
				<ns0:House>SENATE</ns0:House>
				<ns0:Name>Hurtado</ns0:Name>
			</ns0:Legislator>
		</ns0:Authors>
		<ns0:Title> An act to amend Section 16755 of, and to add Sections 16755.1 and 16762 to, the Business and Professions Code, relating to business.</ns0:Title>
		<ns0:RelatingClause>business</ns0:RelatingClause>
		<ns0:GeneralSubject>
			<ns0:Subject>Conspiracy against trade: punishment.</ns0:Subject>
		</ns0:GeneralSubject>
		<ns0:DigestText>
			<html:p>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.</html:p>
			<html:p>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.</html:p>
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		<ns0:DigestKey>
			<ns0:VoteRequired>MAJORITY</ns0:VoteRequired>
			<ns0:Appropriation>NO</ns0:Appropriation>
			<ns0:FiscalCommittee>YES</ns0:FiscalCommittee>
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	<ns0:Bill id="bill">
		<ns0:Preamble>The people of the State of California do enact as follows:</ns0:Preamble>
		<ns0:BillSection id="id_6BFEB310-A0F6-47F1-BCF5-53E40F4B9F30">
			<ns0:Num>SECTION 1.</ns0:Num>
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				Section 16755 of the 
				<ns0:DocName>Business and Professions Code</ns0:DocName>
				 is amended to read:
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				<ns0:LawSection id="id_9F2A4A1F-9DC5-4E29-B5D3-0BFE46194665">
					<ns0:Num>16755.</ns0:Num>
					<ns0:LawSectionVersion id="id_232C89DA-3127-41D3-92A2-7AA1334ADF0A">
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								(a)
								<html:span class="EnSpace"/>
								Any violation of this chapter is a conspiracy against trade, and any person who engages in any such conspiracy or takes part therein, or aids or advises in its commission, or who as principal, manager, director, agent, servant or employee, or in any other capacity, knowingly carries out any of the stipulations, purposes, prices, rates, or furnishes any information to assist in carrying out those purposes, or orders thereunder or in pursuance thereof, is punishable, as follows:
							</html:p>
							<html:p>
								(1)
								<html:span class="EnSpace"/>
								If the violator is a corporation, by a fine of not more than
						six million dollars ($6,000,000) or the applicable amount under paragraph (3), whichever is greater.
							</html:p>
							<html:p>
								(2)
								<html:span class="EnSpace"/>
								If the violator is an individual, by imprisonment pursuant to subdivision (h) of Section 1170 of the Penal Code for one, two, or three years, by imprisonment for not more than one year in a county jail, by a fine of not more than the greater of one million dollars ($1,000,000) and a fine of the applicable amount under paragraph (3), or by both a fine and imprisonment.
							</html:p>
							<html:p>
								(3)
								<html:span class="EnSpace"/>
								If any
						person derives pecuniary gain from a violation of this chapter, or the violation results in pecuniary loss to a person other than the violator, the violator may be fined not more than an amount equal to the amount of the gross gain multiplied by two or an amount equal to the amount of the gross loss multiplied by two, whichever is applicable.
							</html:p>
							<html:p>
								(b)
								<html:span class="EnSpace"/>
								Any action pursuant to this section may be commenced at any time within four years after the commission of the last act comprising a part of any violation. No cause of action barred under existing law on the effective date of the amendment of this section at the 1977–78 Regular Session of the Legislature shall be revived by that amendment.
							</html:p>
							<html:p>
								(c)
								<html:span class="EnSpace"/>
								All moneys received by any court in payment of any fine or civil penalty imposed
						pursuant to this section shall, as soon as practicable after receipt thereof, be deposited with the county treasurer of the county in which the court is situated. Amounts so deposited shall be paid as soon as practicable as follows: 100 percent to the Treasurer by warrant of the county auditor drawn upon the requisition of the clerk or judge of said court to be deposited in the Attorney General antitrust account within the General Fund of the State
						Treasury, as established under Section 12526 of the Government Code, on order of the Controller if the moneys received resulted from an action initiated and prosecuted by the Attorney General. If the action was initiated and prosecuted by a district attorney, then 100 percent shall be paid as soon as practicable to the treasurer of the county in which the prosecution is conducted. If the action was initiated and prosecuted jointly by the Attorney General and a district attorney or jointly by more than one district attorney, those amounts shall be paid to the State Treasurer and to the treasurer or treasurers of the county or counties participating in the prosecution in a proportion agreed upon by the agencies jointly prosecuting the case and as approved by the court.
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		<ns0:BillSection id="id_4AB52BAE-0B11-4999-B9C7-79AFAE091DEB">
			<ns0:Num>SEC. 2.</ns0:Num>
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				Section 16755.1 is added to the 
				<ns0:DocName>Business and Professions Code</ns0:DocName>
				, to read:
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				<ns0:LawSection id="id_14961D34-5162-44BF-9845-4A767DFEA4F1">
					<ns0:Num>16755.1.</ns0:Num>
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							<html:p>
								(a)
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								A civil penalty of not more than one million dollars ($1,000,000) shall be assessed and recovered in any civil action brought by the Attorney General or district attorney against any person, corporation, or business entity for each violation of this chapter.
							</html:p>
							<html:p>
								(b)
								<html:span class="EnSpace"/>
								In assessing the amount of a civil penalty pursuant to this section, a court or jury shall consider any relevant circumstances presented by any of the parties to the case, including, but not limited to, all of the following:
							</html:p>
							<html:p>
								(1)
								<html:span class="EnSpace"/>
								The nature and seriousness of the misconduct.
							</html:p>
							<html:p>
								(2)
								<html:span class="EnSpace"/>
								The number of violations committed by the defendant.
							</html:p>
							<html:p>
								(3)
								<html:span class="EnSpace"/>
								The persistence of the defendant’s misconduct.
							</html:p>
							<html:p>
								(4)
								<html:span class="EnSpace"/>
								The length of time over which the defendant’s misconduct occurred.
							</html:p>
							<html:p>
								(5)
								<html:span class="EnSpace"/>
								The willfulness of the defendant’s misconduct.
							</html:p>
							<html:p>
								(6)
								<html:span class="EnSpace"/>
								The defendant’s assets, liabilities, and net worth.
							</html:p>
							<html:p>
								(7)
								<html:span class="EnSpace"/>
								The extent to which the defendant cooperated in the Attorney General’s or district attorney’s investigation and litigation.
							</html:p>
							<html:p>
								(c)
								<html:span class="EnSpace"/>
								The penalty described in this
						section shall be recovered only in a civil action brought by the Attorney General or a district attorney, or by any of that person’s attorneys designated by it for that purpose, against any party that violates this chapter.
							</html:p>
							<html:p>
								(d)
								<html:span class="EnSpace"/>
								A penalty collected pursuant to this section shall accrue only to the State of California or the county treasurer of the county in which the court is situated, and all proceeds retained pursuant to this section shall be deposited pursuant to subdivision (c) of Section 16755.
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			<ns0:Num>SEC. 3.</ns0:Num>
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				Section 16762 is added to the 
				<ns0:DocName>Business and Professions Code</ns0:DocName>
				, to read:
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				<ns0:LawSection id="id_CBB4D271-EAA8-434A-90BF-E7725AE8C6BF">
					<ns0:Num>16762.</ns0:Num>
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							<html:p>Unless otherwise expressly provided, the remedies or penalties provided by this chapter are cumulative to each other and to the remedies or penalties available under other state law.</html:p>
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