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<ns0:ActionText>INTRODUCED</ns0:ActionText>
<ns0:ActionDate>2026-01-20</ns0:ActionDate>
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<ns0:SessionYear>2025</ns0:SessionYear>
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<ns0:AuthorText authorType="LEAD_AUTHOR">Introduced by Assembly Member Zbur</ns0:AuthorText>
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<ns0:Name>Zbur</ns0:Name>
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<ns0:Title> An act relating to consumer protection.</ns0:Title>
<ns0:RelatingClause>consumer protection</ns0:RelatingClause>
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<ns0:Subject>Customer service support.</ns0:Subject>
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<html:p>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.</html:p>
<html:p>This bill would declare the Legislature’s intent to enact legislation that would regulate telephonic and internet customer service support in specified ways.</html:p>
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<ns0:Preamble>The people of the State of California do enact as follows:</ns0:Preamble>
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<html:p>It is the intent of the Legislature to enact legislation that would do all of the following: </html:p>
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(a)
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Require large private businesses who provide goods and services to consumers in California to provide consumers with human customer service support and communications during the business hours of 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. daily.
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(b)
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For online customer service platforms, require giving customers the option to request customer service assistance from a human being, and upon that request, require the operator of the online platform to provide human assistance within five minutes after the request was made.
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(c)
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For
telephonic customer service platforms, require both of the following:
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(1)
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That a customer call be answered quickly and, after the call is answered, prohibit a customer from being placed on hold for more than five minutes after the call is answered.
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(2)
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If a call is answered by an artificial intelligence bot, require the operator of the telephonic platform to provide human assistance within five minutes after the call is made.
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(d)
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Require large private businesses who provide goods and services to consumers in California through online platforms to offer a telephonic customer service platform and to post their telephonic customer service phone number conspicuously on their website.
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(e)
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Prohibit an operator of a large private business from representing
that an artificial intelligence or automated customer service system or bot is a human.
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(f)
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Require an operator of a large private business to provide a clear and conspicuous disclosure when customer service is artificially generated and not human.
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(g)
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Require customer service platforms to implement tracking mechanisms to ensure compliance with this law.
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(h)
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Specify that “operator” does not include a small business, as defined in Section 11342.610 of the Government Code.
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