On Tuesday, Governor Gavin Newsom signed AB 2426 into law, protecting consumers of digital goods like books, movies, and video games from being duped

Sony, Ubisoft scandals prompt Calif. ban on deceptive sales of digital goods

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2024-09-27 02:30:05

On Tuesday, Governor Gavin Newsom signed AB 2426 into law, protecting consumers of digital goods like books, movies, and video games from being duped into purchasing content without realizing access was only granted through a temporary license.

Sponsored by Democratic assemblymember Jacqui Irwin, the law makes it illegal to "advertise or offer for sale a digital good 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."

Moving forward, sellers must clearly mark when a buyer is only receiving a license for—rather than making a purchase of—a digital good. Sellers must also clearly disclose that access to the digital good could be revoked if the seller no longer retains rights to license that good.

Perhaps most significantly, these disclosures cannot be buried in terms of service, but "shall be distinct and separate from any other terms and conditions of the transaction that the purchaser acknowledges or agrees to," the law says.