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<ns0:Id>20250AB__195499INT</ns0:Id>
<ns0:VersionNum>99</ns0:VersionNum>
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<ns0:Action>
<ns0:ActionText>INTRODUCED</ns0:ActionText>
<ns0:ActionDate>2026-02-13</ns0:ActionDate>
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<ns0:SessionYear>2025</ns0:SessionYear>
<ns0:SessionNum>0</ns0:SessionNum>
<ns0:MeasureType>AB</ns0:MeasureType>
<ns0:MeasureNum>1954</ns0:MeasureNum>
<ns0:MeasureState>INT</ns0:MeasureState>
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<ns0:AuthorText authorType="LEAD_AUTHOR">Introduced by Assembly Member Ward</ns0:AuthorText>
<ns0:Authors>
<ns0:Legislator>
<ns0:Contribution>LEAD_AUTHOR</ns0:Contribution>
<ns0:House>ASSEMBLY</ns0:House>
<ns0:Name>Ward</ns0:Name>
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<ns0:Title> An act to add Chapter 45 (commencing with Section 22949.93) to Division 8 of the Business and Professions Code, relating to business. </ns0:Title>
<ns0:RelatingClause>business</ns0:RelatingClause>
<ns0:GeneralSubject>
<ns0:Subject>Municipal golf courses: reservations.</ns0:Subject>
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<ns0:DigestText>
<html:p>Existing law authorizes a city to purchase, lease, receive, hold, and enjoy real and personal property, and control and dispose of that property for the common benefit. Existing law authorizes the legislative body of a city to acquire property needed for specified purposes, including golf courses.</html:p>
<html:p>Existing law, the Unfair Competition Law (UCL), defines unfair competition to mean and include an unlawful, unfair, or fraudulent business act or practice, unfair, deceptive, untrue, or misleading advertising, and any false representations to the public. Existing law makes a person who engages in unfair competition liable for a civil penalty not to exceed $2,500 for each violation, and requires that this penalty be assessed and recovered in a civil action brought by specified persons and entities, including cities.</html:p>
<html:p>This bill would prohibit an operator of a third-party golf reservation service platform from listing, advertising, promoting, or selling reservations for a golf course owned by a local public agency without a written authorization from the golf course operator, as specified. The bill would provide that a violation of these provisions constitutes an unlawful business act or practice under the UCL.</html:p>
<html:p>The bill would include findings that changes proposed by this bill address a matter of statewide concern rather than a municipal affair and, therefore, apply to all cities, including charter cities.</html:p>
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<ns0:VoteRequired>MAJORITY</ns0:VoteRequired>
<ns0:Appropriation>NO</ns0:Appropriation>
<ns0:FiscalCommittee>YES</ns0:FiscalCommittee>
<ns0:LocalProgram>NO</ns0:LocalProgram>
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<ns0:ImmediateEffect>NO</ns0:ImmediateEffect>
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<ns0:Urgency>NO</ns0:Urgency>
<ns0:TaxLevy>NO</ns0:TaxLevy>
<ns0:Election>NO</ns0:Election>
<ns0:UsualCurrentExpenses>NO</ns0:UsualCurrentExpenses>
<ns0:BudgetBill>NO</ns0:BudgetBill>
<ns0:Prop25TrailerBill>NO</ns0:Prop25TrailerBill>
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<ns0:Preamble>The people of the State of California do enact as follows:</ns0:Preamble>
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<ns0:Num>SECTION 1.</ns0:Num>
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<html:p>The Legislature finds and declares the following:</html:p>
<html:p>
(a)
<html:span class="EnSpace"/>
The State of California is home to many golf courses that attract tourists from around the world. They also provide recreational, social, health, and charitable benefits to the residents of the communities in which they are located.
</html:p>
<html:p>
(b)
<html:span class="EnSpace"/>
There are over 200 courses in California that are municipally owned by a mix of state, city, county, city and county, and charter cities. Because these public courses are parts of publicly owned park systems, they operate per-pricing structures that make them maximally available to local residents, seniors, juniors, schools, school athletic teams, and local clubs and civic organizations.
This pricing creates a demand for tee times that, in California’s urban areas, are among the highest if not the highest in the nation.
</html:p>
<html:p>
(c)
<html:span class="EnSpace"/>
Tee time brokers have become a significant issue throughout the state. By booking tee times en masse and selling, reselling, and brokering them at inflated prices on a secondary market, they substantially reduce the already strained supply of recreational opportunities available to California residents and harm the ability of the state’s municipal golf course owners to operate them per a maximally affordable business model providing maximal equitable public access.
</html:p>
<html:p>
(d)
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The Legislature finds and declares that Section 2 of this act adding Chapter 45 (commencing with Section 22949.93) to the Business and Professions Code addresses a matter of statewide concern rather than a municipal affair as that term is used in Section 5 of
Article XI of the California Constitution. Therefore, Section 2 of this act applies to all cities, including charter cities.
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<ns0:BillSection id="id_7EA4A354-53DE-4725-8022-EBFC89B6F786">
<ns0:Num>SEC. 2.</ns0:Num>
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Chapter 45 (commencing with Section 22949.93) is added to Division 8 of the
<ns0:DocName>Business and Professions Code</ns0:DocName>
, to read:
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<ns0:LawHeading id="id_97948AEC-42F9-443C-B9BA-C98CE2F217FB" type="CHAPTER">
<ns0:Num>45.</ns0:Num>
<ns0:LawHeadingVersion id="id_4CB8D4E5-6CD0-4A03-9711-1348AD193AE5">
<ns0:LawHeadingText>Blocking Illegitimate Reservations and Protecting Equitable Access to California’s Publicly Owned Golf Courses Act</ns0:LawHeadingText>
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<ns0:LawSection id="id_55CF580B-96C8-4A37-9BB8-D3AEFAB8A7AF">
<ns0:Num>22949.93.</ns0:Num>
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<html:p>This chapter shall be known, and may be cited, as the “Blocking Illegitimate Reservations and Protecting Equitable Access to California’s Publicly Owned Golf Courses Act.”</html:p>
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<ns0:LawSection id="id_762270C6-3877-4EDA-B96C-88F17B6203B9">
<ns0:Num>22949.93.1.</ns0:Num>
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<html:p>For purposes of this chapter, the following definitions apply:</html:p>
<html:p>
(a)
<html:span class="EnSpace"/>
“Affiliate” means any entity that, directly or indirectly, through one or more intermediaries, controls, is controlled by, or is under common control with, another entity.
</html:p>
<html:p>
(b)
<html:span class="EnSpace"/>
“Golf course” means a golf course and its accessory facilities and services that are owned by a local agency. “Golf course” includes clubhouses, driving ranges, golf cart storage, locker and shower facilities, and sales facilities.
</html:p>
<html:p>
(c)
<html:span class="EnSpace"/>
“Golf course operator” means either of the following:
</html:p>
<html:p>
(1)
<html:span class="EnSpace"/>
A local agency operating a golf
course.
</html:p>
<html:p>
(2)
<html:span class="EnSpace"/>
An entity operating a golf course through a contractual relationship with the local agency, including a license, lease, or management agreement.
</html:p>
<html:p>
(d)
<html:span class="EnSpace"/>
“Local agency” means a county, city and county, city, or charter city. “Local agency” includes a special district and joint powers authority.
</html:p>
<html:p>
(e)
<html:span class="EnSpace"/>
“Third-party golf reservation service platform” means a website, mobile application, or other internet platform that is owned or operated by an entity other than a golf course operator and that offers or arranges reservations for on-premises service for a customer at a golf course.
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<ns0:LawSection id="id_7C725B90-D938-45FC-B544-823CA1E28821">
<ns0:Num>22949.93.2.</ns0:Num>
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<html:p>
(a)
<html:span class="EnSpace"/>
An operator of a third-party golf reservation service platform shall not list, advertise, promote, or sell reservations for a golf course in the third-party reservation service platform without a written agreement between the operator of the third-party golf reservation service platform and the golf course operator that authorizes that reservation service.
</html:p>
<html:p>
(b)
<html:span class="EnSpace"/>
The authority provided in a written agreement described in subdivision (a) does not extend to an affiliate website or other internet platform unless the written agreement explicitly provides that authority to that affiliate website or internet platform.
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<ns0:LawSection id="id_D1AF35B5-2F27-4057-922B-EEE57ECE1DCD">
<ns0:Num>22949.93.3.</ns0:Num>
<ns0:LawSectionVersion id="id_1B8B4A25-1B82-4289-AA8A-1AFA4488704A">
<ns0:Content>
<html:p>Any violation of this chapter constitutes an unlawful business act or practice within the meaning of Chapter 5 (commencing with Section 17200) of Part 2 of Division 7.</html:p>
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