They Came for the Guardrail. They Left With a Bigger One.
When SB 638 was filed back in January, OCPA flagged it as a quiet threat—a five-page "definitional cleanup" of the Unfair Sales Act that happened to delete the 6% markup presumption protecting Oklahoma retailers, and especially independent gas stations, from predatory below-cost pricing by large chains. We urged the Legislature to scrutinize it. The Legislature did better than that. It flipped the bill on its head.
The version Governor Stitt signed on May 24th doesn't remove the 6% markup. It keeps it right where it's been for decades. And then it adds something new: a dedicated criminal penalty for below-cost selling of motor fuel, with a fine of up to $1,000—double the $500 maximum that applies to general merchandise. SB 638 walked into the Capitol as a deregulatory loosening and walked out as a targeted tightening. The Senate concurred in the House amendments 40 to 2. It takes effect November 1st.
That is a remarkable transformation, and it's worth understanding what happened in between.
The introduced bill had one author: Sen. Daniels. The enrolled bill carries three Senate authors (Daniels, Frix, and Woods) and nine House coauthors, a bipartisan group that includes both Rep. Bashore and Rep. Rosecrants. Coalitions that wide don't form around formatting changes. They form because somebody made the case that the bill's original direction would hurt real people, and enough legislators listened.
OCPA believes what happened is straightforward. Independent fuel retailers—the corner stations, the rural pumps, the family-owned convenience stores that are often the only fuel option in small Oklahoma towns—made clear that removing the markup presumption would leave them defenseless against loss-leader pricing by big-box competitors. The 6% floor isn't a price-fixing mechanism; it's a burden-shifting tool. It says that if you're accused of selling below cost to drive out a competitor, the law presumes a reasonable baseline for what "cost" means, and the burden falls on you to prove otherwise. Without it, every predatory-pricing case becomes a forensic accounting exercise that small operators can't afford to litigate and prosecutors can't afford to bring.
The Legislature heard that argument and went further. The new motor-fuel provision in Section 2 recognizes what OCPA and independent retailers have long understood: fuel is the product most vulnerable to predatory loss-leader strategies, because consumers will drive past three stations to save two cents a gallon. A dedicated misdemeanor with a higher fine sends a clear signal that Oklahoma takes below-cost fuel pricing seriously—not as aggressive competition, but as the market-distorting practice the Unfair Sales Act was written to prevent.
This is a consumer protection win. Not because it keeps gas prices high (it doesn't) but because it keeps gas stations open. A competitive fuel market requires competitors, and competitors require a level enough playing field that a family-owned station in Pawhuska isn't competing against the grocery loss-leader budget of a Fortune 50 corporation. SB 638, in its final form, preserves that field.
OCPA commends Sen. Daniels and the bipartisan coalition for getting this right—and for proving that a bill can arrive in committee pointed in one direction and leave pointed in a better one.