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Legislative record

AB 1609STATE · CaliforniaIntroduced

Customer service chatbots.

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.

Voted 9/14/2026View source

Roll-call record

How representatives voted

55 yea·16 nay

Docket history

Action history

  1. 7/1/2026From committee: Do pass and re-refer to Com. on APPR. (Ayes 11. Noes 1.) (June 30). Re-referred to Com. on APPR.
  2. 6/25/2026From committee chair, with author's amendments: Amend, and re-refer to committee. Read second time, amended, and re-referred to Com. on JUD.
  3. 6/23/2026From committee: Do pass and re-refer to Com. on JUD. (Ayes 7. Noes 0.) (June 22). Re-referred to Com. on JUD.
  4. 6/10/2026From 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.
  5. 6/10/2026Referred to Coms. on P., D.T., & C.P. and JUD.
  6. 5/28/2026In Senate. Read first time. To Com. on RLS. for assignment.
  7. 5/27/2026Read third time. Passed. Ordered to the Senate. (Ayes 56. Noes 16.)
  8. 5/18/2026Read second time. Ordered to third reading.
  9. 5/14/2026From committee: Do pass. (Ayes 11. Noes 4.) (May 14).
  10. 5/6/2026In committee: Set, first hearing. Referred to APPR. suspense file.