California’s latest law AB 2426 was signed into effect by Governor Gavin Newson to help protect consumers from “disappearing purchases,” reported by The Verge. The law doesn’t take effect until next year, but it will ban digital businesses from using terms like “buy” or “purchase” for any digital media that a customer gets a license for instead of owning it without unresticted access.
With digital content, including games, movies, music, and ebooks often disappearing off platforms after customers “buy” them, the law aims to give customers more transparency. If a business violates the law, it will be subject to fines for false advertising. The law doesn’t apply to “permanent offline” downloads, according to the report.
From the law’s summary page:
Existing law makes it unlawful for any person doing business in California and advertising to consumers in California to make any false or misleading advertising claim. Existing law makes a person who violates specified false advertising provisions liable for a civil penalty, as specified, and provides that a person who violates those false advertising provisions is guilty of a misdemeanor.
This bill would, subject to specified exceptions, additionally prohibit a seller of a digital good from advertising or offering for sale a digital good, as defined, to a purchaser with the terms buy, purchase, or any other term which a reasonable person would understand to confer an unrestricted ownership interest in the digital good, or alongside an option for a time-limited rental, unless the seller receives at the time of each transaction an affirmative acknowledgment from the purchaser, or the seller provides to the consumer before executing each transaction a clear and conspicuous statement, as specified. By expanding the scope of a crime, this bill would impose a state-mandated local program.
The California Constitution requires the state to reimburse local agencies and school districts for certain costs mandated by the state. Statutory provisions establish procedures for making that reimbursement.
This bill would provide that no reimbursement is required by this act for a specified reason.
Credit: The Verge