California AB 1609 (Customer Service Chatbot Disclosure and Human Escalation)

Properties

jurisdiction: US, California
level: state
domain: transparency
status: enacted-pending
scope: Would require large businesses using customer-service chatbots with California consumers to disclose that the chatbot is AI, not human, and to offer a path to reach a human agent.
obligations: As read from the bill's added Business and Professions Code Chapter 22.6.1 (Section 22626(b)), confirmed verbatim on leginfo: 'A large private business shall provide a clear and conspicuous disclosure that the customer service chatbot is artificially generated and not human if a reasonable person interacting with the customer service chatbot is likely to be misled to believe that the person is interacting with a human.' Covered businesses (over $500,000,000 in national annual gross revenue) must also provide either a connection to a customer service agent within 15 minutes of the request, or a specific appointment time within one business day of the request at which a customer service agent will call or connect with the customer.
appliesTo: Entities with more than $500,000,000 in national annual gross revenue that offer goods or services to consumers and use a customer-service chatbot
officialUrl: https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billStatusClient.xhtml?bill_id=202520260AB1609
notes: ENACTED (this run, 2026-10-10): CalMatters Digital Democracy shows AB 1609 chaptered by the Secretary of State on September 28, 2026 as Chapter 733, Statutes of 2026; aipolicydesk.com lists it as signed Sept 28. leginfo was 403 this round, so chaptering rests on those aggregators. The aggregator describes the final text as requiring disclosure when a reasonable person could be misled into thinking a chatbot is human, a good faith effort to connect a customer to an agent within 15 minutes or schedule an appointment, and exemptions for utilities complying with specified regulations, hospital communications, exclusive business lines and consumer reporting agencies. The operative date was not confirmed, so effectiveDate is null. Earlier history: enrolled and presented to the Governor 09/14/26. No currently tracked entity covers general customer-service chatbots at large businesses; ca-sb243/ca-sb1119 cover AI companion chatbots and ca-ab489 covers AI impersonating a licensed health professional.
enactedDate: 2026-09-28

Properties

jurisdiction

US, California

level

state

domain

transparency

status

enacted-pending

scope

Would require large businesses using customer-service chatbots with California consumers to disclose that the chatbot is AI, not human, and to offer a path to reach a human agent.

obligations

As read from the bill's added Business and Professions Code Chapter 22.6.1 (Section 22626(b)), confirmed verbatim on leginfo: 'A large private business shall provide a clear and conspicuous disclosure that the customer service chatbot is artificially generated and not human if a reasonable person interacting with the customer service chatbot is likely to be misled to believe that the person is interacting with a human.' Covered businesses (over $500,000,000 in national annual gross revenue) must also provide either a connection to a customer service agent within 15 minutes of the request, or a specific appointment time within one business day of the request at which a customer service agent will call or connect with the customer.

appliesTo

Entities with more than $500,000,000 in national annual gross revenue that offer goods or services to consumers and use a customer-service chatbot

officialUrl

https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billStatusClient.xhtml?bill_id=202520260AB1609

notes

ENACTED (this run, 2026-10-10): CalMatters Digital Democracy shows AB 1609 chaptered by the Secretary of State on September 28, 2026 as Chapter 733, Statutes of 2026; aipolicydesk.com lists it as signed Sept 28. leginfo was 403 this round, so chaptering rests on those aggregators. The aggregator describes the final text as requiring disclosure when a reasonable person could be misled into thinking a chatbot is human, a good faith effort to connect a customer to an agent within 15 minutes or schedule an appointment, and exemptions for utilities complying with specified regulations, hospital communications, exclusive business lines and consumer reporting agencies. The operative date was not confirmed, so effectiveDate is null. Earlier history: enrolled and presented to the Governor 09/14/26. No currently tracked entity covers general customer-service chatbots at large businesses; ca-sb243/ca-sb1119 cover AI companion chatbots and ca-ab489 covers AI impersonating a licensed health professional.

enactedDate

2026-09-28