"The "California effect" is the shift of consumer, environmental and other regulations in the direction of political jurisdictions with stricter regulatory standards.^[1] The name is derived from the spread of some advanced environmental regulatory standards that were originally adopted by the U.S. state of California and eventually adopted in other states."^[1]

A related concept is the Brussels effect, "the process of unilateral regulatory globalisation caused by the European Union de facto (but not necessarily de jure) externalising its laws outside its borders through market mechanisms. Through the Brussels effect, regulated entities, especially corporations, end up complying with EU laws even outside the EU for a variety of reasons."^[2]