Article 9 - Civil Remedies

California Civil Code — §§ 1798.45-1798.53

Sections (14)

Added by Stats. 1977, Ch. 709.

An individual may bring a civil action against an agency whenever such agency does any of the following:

(a)Refuses to comply with an individual’s lawful request to inspect pursuant to subdivision (a) of Section 1798.34.

(b)Fails to maintain any record concerning any individual with such accuracy, relevancy, timeliness, and completeness as is necessary to assure fairness in any determination relating to the qualifications, character, rights, opportunities of, or benefits to the individual that may be made on the basis of such record, if,

as a proximate result of such failure, a determination is made which is adverse to the individual.

(c)Fails to comply with any other provision of this chapter, or any rule promulgated thereunder, in such a way as to have an adverse effect on an individual.

§ 1798.46

Amended by Stats. 1985, Ch. 595, Sec. 22.

In any suit brought under the provisions of subdivision (a) of Section 1798.45:

(a)The court may enjoin the agency from withholding the records and order the production to the complainant of any agency records improperly withheld from the complainant. In such a suit the court shall determine the matter de novo, and may examine the contents of any agency records in camera to determine whether the records or any portion thereof may be withheld as being exempt from the individual’s right of access and the burden is on the agency to sustain its action.

(b)The court shall assess against the agency reasonable attorney’s fees and other litigation costs reasonably incurred in any suit under this section in which the complainant has prevailed. A party may be considered to have prevailed even though he or she does not prevail on all issues or against all parties.

§ 1798.47

Amended by Stats. 1992, 1st Ex. Sess., Ch. 21, Sec. 33.7. Effective March 7, 1993.

Any agency that fails to comply with any provision of this chapter may be enjoined by any court of competent jurisdiction. The court may make any order or judgment as may be necessary to prevent the use or employment by an agency of any practices which violate this chapter.

Actions for injunction under this section may be prosecuted by the Attorney General, or

any district attorney in this state, in the name of the people of the State of California whether upon his or her own complaint, or of a member of the general public, or by any individual acting in his or her own behalf.

§ 1798.48

Added by Stats. 1977, Ch. 709.

In any suit brought under the provisions of subdivision (b) or (c) of Section 1798.45, the agency shall be liable to the individual in an amount equal to the sum of:

(a)Actual damages sustained by the individual, including damages for mental suffering.

(b)The costs of the action together with reasonable attorney’s fees as determined by the court.

§ 1798.49

Added by Stats. 1977, Ch. 709.

An action to enforce any liability created under Sections 1798.45 to 1798.48, inclusive, may be brought in any court of competent jurisdiction in the county in which the complainant resides, or has his principal place of business, or in which the defendant’s records are situated, within two years from the date on which the cause of action arises, except that where a defendant has materially and willfully misrepresented any information required under this section to be disclosed to an individual who is the subject of the information and the information so misrepresented is material to the establishment of the defendant’s liability to that individual under this section,

the action may be brought at any time within two years after discovery by the complainant of the misrepresentation. Nothing in Sections 1798.45 to 1798.48, inclusive, shall be construed to authorize any civil action by reason of any injury sustained as the result of any information practice covered by this chapter prior to July 1, 1978.

The rights and remedies set forth in this chapter shall be deemed to be nonexclusive and are in addition to all those rights and remedies which are otherwise available under any other provision of law.

§ 1798.50

Added by Stats. 1977, Ch. 709.

A civil action shall not lie under this article based upon an allegation that an opinion which is subjective in nature, as distinguished from a factual assertion, about an individual’s qualifications, in connection with a personnel action concerning such an individual, was not accurate, relevant, timely, or complete.

§ 1798.51

Added by Stats. 1977, Ch. 709.

Where a remedy other than those provided in Articles 8 and 9 is provided by law but is not available because of lapse of time an individual may obtain a correction to a record under this chapter but such correction shall not operate to revise or restore a right or remedy not provided by this chapter that has been barred because of lapse of time.

§ 1798.53

Amended by Stats. 1985, Ch. 595, Sec. 23.

Any person, other than an employee of the state or of a local government agency acting solely in his or her official capacity, who intentionally discloses information, not otherwise public, which they know or should reasonably know was obtained from personal information maintained by a state agency or from “records” within a “system of records” (as these terms are defined in the Federal Privacy Act of 1974 (P. L. 93-579; 5 U.S.C. 552a)) maintained by a federal government agency, shall be subject to a civil action, for invasion of privacy, by the individual to whom the information pertains.

In any

successful action brought under this section, the complainant, in addition to any special or general damages awarded, shall be awarded a minimum of two thousand five hundred dollars ($2,500) in exemplary damages as well as attorney’s fees and other litigation costs reasonably incurred in the suit.

The right, remedy, and cause of action set forth in this section shall be nonexclusive and is in addition to all other rights, remedies, and causes of action for invasion of privacy, inherent in Section 1 of Article I of the California Constitution.

§ 1798.500

Added by Stats. 2025, Ch. 675, Sec. 1. (AB 1043) Effective January 1, 2026. Operative January 1, 2027, pursuant to Section 1798.505.

For the purposes of this title:

(a)(1) “Account holder” means an individual who is at least 18 years of age or a parent or legal guardian of a user who is under 18 years of age in the state.

(2)“Account holder” does not include a parent of an emancipated minor or a parent or legal guardian who is not associated with a user’s device.

(b)“Age bracket data” means nonpersonally identifiable data derived from a user’s birth date or age for the purpose of sharing with developers of applications that indicates the user’s age range, including, at a minimum, the following:

(1)Whether a user is under 13 years of age.

(2)Whether the user is at least

13 years of age and under 16 years of age.

(3)Whether the user is at least 16 years of age and under 18 years of age.

(4)Whether the user is at least

18 years of age.

(c)“Application” means a software application

that may be run or directed by a user on a computer, a mobile device, or any other general purpose computing device that can access a covered application store or download an application.

(d)“Child” means a natural person who is under 18 years of age.

(e)(1) “Covered application store” means a

publicly available

internet website, software application, online service, or platform that distributes and facilitates the download of applications from third-party developers to users of a computer, a mobile device, or any other general purpose computing that can access a covered application store or can download an application.

(2)“Covered application store” does not mean an online service or platform that distributes extensions, plug-ins, add-ons, or other software applications that run exclusively within a separate host application.

(f)“Developer” means a person that owns, maintains, or controls an application.

(g)“Operating system provider” means a person or entity that develops, licenses, or controls the operating system software on a computer, mobile device, or any other general purpose computing device.

(h)“Signal” means age bracket data sent by a real-time secure application programming interface or operating system to an application.

(i)“User” means a child that is the primary user of the device.

§ 1798.501

Added by Stats. 2025, Ch. 675, Sec. 1. (AB 1043) Effective January 1, 2026. Operative January 1, 2027, pursuant to Section 1798.505.

(a)An operating system provider shall do all of the following:

(1)Provide an accessible interface at account setup that requires an account holder to indicate the birth date, age, or both, of the user of that device for the purpose of providing a signal regarding the user’s age bracket to applications available in a covered application store.

(2)Provide a developer who has requested a signal with respect to a particular user with a digital signal via a

reasonably consistent real-time application programming interface that identifies, at a minimum, which of the following categories pertains to the user:

(A)Under 13 years of age.

(B)At least 13 years of age and under

16 years of age.

(C)At least

16 years of age and under 18 years of age.

(D)At least 18 years of age.

(3)Send only the minimum amount of information necessary to comply with this title and shall not share the digital signal information with a third party for a purpose not required by this title.

(b)(1) A developer shall request a signal with respect to a particular user from an operating system provider or a covered application store when the application is downloaded

and launched.

(2)(A) A developer that receives a signal pursuant to this title shall be deemed to have actual knowledge of the

age range of the user to whom that signal pertains across all platforms of the application and points of access of the application even if the developer willfully disregards the signal.

(B)A developer shall not willfully disregard internal clear and convincing information otherwise available to the developer that indicates that a user’s age is different than the age bracket data indicated by a signal provided by an operating system provider or a covered application store.

(3)(A) Except as provided in subparagraph (B), a developer shall treat a signal received pursuant to this title as the primary indicator of a user’s age range for purposes of determining the user’s age.

(B)If a developer has internal clear and convincing information that a user’s age is different than the age indicated by a signal received pursuant to this title, the developer shall use that information as the primary indicator of the user’s age.

(4)A developer that receives a signal

pursuant to this title

shall use that signal to comply with applicable law but shall not do either of the following:

(A)Request more information from an operating system provider or a covered application store than the minimum amount of information necessary to comply with this title.

(B)Share the signal with a third party for a purpose not required by this title.

§ 1798.502

Added by Stats. 2025, Ch. 675, Sec. 1. (AB 1043) Effective January 1, 2026. Operative January 1, 2027, pursuant to Section 1798.505.

(a)With respect to a device for which account setup was completed before January 1, 2027, an operating system provider shall, before July 1, 2027, provide an accessible interface that allows an account holder to indicate the birth date, age, or both, of the user of that device for the purpose of providing a signal regarding the user’s age bracket to applications available in a covered application store.

(b)If an application last updated with updates on or after January 1, 2026, was downloaded to a device before January 1, 2027, and the developer has not requested a signal with respect to the user of the device on which the application was downloaded, the developer shall request a signal from a covered application store with respect to

that user before July 1, 2027.

§ 1798.503

Added by Stats. 2025, Ch. 675, Sec. 1. (AB 1043) Effective January 1, 2026. Operative January 1, 2027, pursuant to Section 1798.505.

(a)A person that violates this title shall be subject to an injunction and liable for a civil penalty of not more than two thousand five hundred dollars ($2,500) per affected child for each negligent violation or not more than seven thousand five hundred dollars ($7,500) per affected child for each intentional violation, which shall be assessed and recovered only in a civil action brought in the name of the people of the State of California by the Attorney General.

(b)An operating system provider or a covered application store that makes a good faith effort to comply with this title, taking into consideration available technology and any reasonable technical limitations or outages, shall not be liable for an erroneous signal indicating a user’s age range or any conduct by a developer that receives a signal indicating a user’s age range.

§ 1798.504

Added by Stats. 2025, Ch. 675, Sec. 1. (AB 1043) Effective January 1, 2026. Operative January 1, 2027, pursuant to Section 1798.505.

(a)This title does not modify, impair, or supersede the operation of any antitrust law.

(b)This title does not require the collection of additional personal information from device owners or device users other than that which is necessary to comply with Section 1798.501.

(c)An

operating system provider or a covered application store shall comply with this title in a nondiscriminatory

manner, including, but not limited to, by complying with both of the following:

(1)An operating system provider or a covered application store shall impose at least the same restrictions and obligations on its own applications and application distribution as it does on those from third-party applications or application distributors.

(2)An operating system provider or a covered application store shall not use data collected from a third party in the course of compliance with this title to compete against that third party, give the covered application store’s services preference relative to those of a third party, or to otherwise use this data or consent mechanism in an anticompetitive manner.

(d)The protections provided by this title are in addition to those provided by any other applicable law, including, but not limited to, the California Age-Appropriate Design Code Act (Title 1.81.47 (commencing with Section 1798.99.28)).

(e)If any provision of this title, or application thereof, to any person or circumstance is held invalid, that invalidity shall not affect other provisions or applications of this title that can be given effect without the invalid provision or application, and to this end the provisions of this title are declared to be severable.

(f)This title does not apply to any of the following:

(1)A broadband internet access service, as defined in Section 3100.

(2)A telecommunications service, as defined in Section 153 of Title 47 of the United States Code.

(3)The delivery or use of a physical product.

(g)This title does not impose liability on an operating system provider, a covered application store, or a developer that arises from the use of a device or application by a person who is not the user to whom a signal pertains.

§ 1798.505

Added by Stats. 2025, Ch. 675, Sec. 1. (AB 1043) Effective January 1, 2026.

This title shall become operative on January 1, 2027.