A group of California drivers has sued BP, Walmart, 7-Eleven, Circle K, Marathon Petroleum and Albertsons, accusing the fuel retailers of using artificial intelligence to keep petrol prices artificially high. The federal complaint, filed in Sacramento on 22 June 2026, alleges that an AI-based pricing tool helped inflate costs at the pump across California.
The filing says the case matters because it turns a routine pricing system into a question of antitrust and algorithmic price fixing. For drivers, the alleged impact was direct: higher fuel bills in a state where petrol is already expensive and even small increases can quickly add up.
