California Bill Would Ban Gender-Based Price Discrimination

Charging more for pink razors or other items marketed to women that are substantially like those targeted to men would become illegal under a bill the California Assembly unanimously passed Thursday.

A typical California woman pays about $2,381 a year more in a so-called “pink tax” for the same goods and services as a man, author Assemblymember Rebecca Bauer-Kahan (D) said ahead of the floor vote on the bill (A.B. 1287). The figure is based on a 2020 California Senate Judiciary Committee report on a similar bill that didn’t pass.

“This arbitrarily penalizes women up to $47 billion a year” in California, Bauer-Kahan said. “That is the tax that we pay for being a woman. And it is time we get rid of it.”

Photographer: Daniel Acker/Bloomberg via Getty Images

The bill would give the state attorney general the authority to seek an injunction to end the practice. A court, in addition to granting the injunction, could impose a $250 penalty for a first violation and a $500 penalty for each subsequent violation.

The measure was passed on a vote of 59 to 0 and now heads to the California Senate. “We’ve received bipartisan support on the bill so far, so we feel very hopeful for our chances in the Senate,” Bauer-Kahan’s Chief of Staff Jordan Curley said.

To contact the reporter on this story: Joyce E. Cutler in San Francisco at jcutler@bloomberglaw.com

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Tina May at tmay@bloomberglaw.com