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California 20252026

AB 1609

Customer service chatbots.

Open original source Back to bills
Source: Open States / PluralUpdated 2026-09-19 01:11:09 UTC.

Official record

Measure details

Jurisdiction
California
Session
20252026
Chamber
lower
Classification
bill
Subjects
Customerservicechatbots
Introduced / first action
2026-01-20 00:00:00

Alternate titles

  • Customer service support.

Source-supplied abstracts

Existing law prohibits a person from using a bot, as defined, to mislead another person about the bot's artificial identity to incentivize the purchase or sale of goods or services, among other things. Existing law requires an operator of a companion chatbot, as defined, to provide a disclosure regarding the companion chatbot's artificial identity if a reasonable person interacting with the companion chatbot would be misled to believe that the person is interacting with a human. This bill would prohibit a large private business, as defined, from representing that a customer service chatbot is a human. The bill would also require the large private business to provide certain disclosures if a reasonable person interacting with the chatbot would be misled to believe they are interacting with a human. This bill would require a large private business to provide a customer service feature allowing customers to contact a customer service agent during its regular business hours, as defined. This bill would require, except as specified, large private businesses to make a good faith effort to connect a customer to an agent within 15 minutes after a request for human customer service is made, or schedule an appointment with the customer, as specified. For online chatbot customer service platforms and telephonic customer service platforms, the bill would require a large private business to make a good faith effort to limit initial and cumulative telephonic hold times, and would require certain large private businesses to post prescribed contact information on their internet website. The bill would authorize a public prosecutor to enforce these provisions, and would make a large private business that violates these provisions liable for a penalty of up to $5,000 for an initial violation, and $10,000 for each subsequent violation. The bill would waive its requirements due to unforeseen circumstances beyond the reasonable control of a large private business or extraordinary or emergency situations, and would exempt a large private business that provides services subject to, and is in compliance with, specified public utilities law. The bill would further exempt exclusive business lines and communications by a hospital, as specified, and a consumer reporting agency, as prescribed. The bill would define terms for these purposes.

Sponsors

  • Zbur (primary), author

Source-supplied history

Actions

  1. Enrolled and presented to the Governor at 1:30 p.m.

    executive-receipt

  2. Senate amendments concurred in. To Engrossing and Enrolling. (Ayes 58. Noes 18.).

    amendment-passage, committee-passage, committee-passage-favorable

  3. In Assembly. Concurrence in Senate amendments pending.

  4. Read third time. Passed. Ordered to the Assembly. (Ayes 29. Noes 9.).

    passage, reading-1, reading-3

  5. Read second time. Ordered to third reading.

    reading-1, reading-2, reading-3

  6. Read third time and amended. Ordered to second reading.

    amendment-passage, reading-1, reading-2, reading-3

  7. Read second time. Ordered to third reading.

    reading-1, reading-2, reading-3

  8. Read second time and amended. Ordered returned to second reading.

    amendment-passage, reading-1, reading-2

  9. From committee: Amend, and do pass as amended. (Ayes 5. Noes 2.) (August 13).

    amendment-introduction, amendment-passage, committee-passage

  10. In committee: Referred to APPR. suspense file.

    referral-committee

  11. From committee: Do pass and re-refer to Com. on APPR. (Ayes 11. Noes 1.) (June 30). Re-referred to Com. on APPR.

    committee-passage, committee-passage-favorable, referral-committee

  12. From committee chair, with author's amendments: Amend, and re-refer to committee. Read second time, amended, and re-referred to Com. on JUD.

    amendment-introduction, amendment-passage, committee-passage, reading-1, reading-2, referral-committee

  13. From committee: Do pass and re-refer to Com. on JUD. (Ayes 7. Noes 0.) (June 22). Re-referred to Com. on JUD.

    committee-passage, committee-passage-favorable, referral-committee

  14. From committee chair, with author's amendments: Amend, and re-refer to committee. Read second time, amended, and re-referred to Com. on P., D.T., & C.P.

    amendment-introduction, amendment-passage, committee-passage, reading-1, reading-2, referral-committee

  15. Referred to Coms. on P., D.T., & C.P. and JUD.

    referral-committee

  16. In Senate. Read first time. To Com. on RLS. for assignment.

    reading-1, referral-committee

  17. Read third time. Passed. Ordered to the Senate. (Ayes 56. Noes 16.)

    passage, reading-1, reading-3

  18. Read second time. Ordered to third reading.

    reading-1, reading-2, reading-3

  19. From committee: Do pass. (Ayes 11. Noes 4.) (May 14).

    committee-passage, committee-passage-favorable

  20. In committee: Set, first hearing. Referred to APPR. suspense file.

    referral-committee

  21. From committee: Do pass and re-refer to Com. on APPR. (Ayes 9. Noes 3.) (April 21). Re-referred to Com. on APPR.

    committee-passage, committee-passage-favorable, referral-committee

  22. From committee: Do pass and re-refer to Com. on JUD. (Ayes 9. Noes 4.) (April 16). Re-referred to Com. on JUD.

    committee-passage, committee-passage-favorable, referral-committee

  23. Re-referred to Com. on P. & C.P.

    referral-committee

  24. From committee chair, with author's amendments: Amend, and re-refer to Com. on P. & C.P. Read second time and amended.

    amendment-introduction, amendment-passage, committee-passage, reading-1, reading-2, referral-committee

  25. In committee: Hearing postponed by committee.

  26. Re-referred to Com. on P. & C.P.

    referral-committee

  27. From committee chair, with author's amendments: Amend, and re-refer to Com. on P. & C.P. Read second time and amended.

    amendment-introduction, amendment-passage, committee-passage, reading-1, reading-2, referral-committee

  28. Referred to Coms. on P. & C.P. and JUD.

    referral-committee

  29. From printer. May be heard in committee February 20.

  30. Read first time. To print.

    reading-1

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