SB 898

The Unfair Competition Law (UCL) prohibits a person from engaging in unfair competition, including any unlawful, unfair, or fraudulent business act or practice. This bill would require a manufacturer of a connected consumer product sold at retail in the state to clearly and prominently establish and disclose to any prospective buyer of a connected consumer product a minimum guaranteed support timeframe, as prescribed, and would prohibit a manufacturer from reducing that timeframe. The bill would also require a manufacturer to provide a notice of a connected consumer product’s end of life to the public and to any owner of the product, as specified. This bill would require a business that owns or controls a connected consumer product that it leases or otherwise provides to its customers as part of a service to ensure that updates provided by the manufacturer for the connected consumer product are promptly received and applied and, when the connected consumer product has reached its end of life, replace the connected consumer product, at no additional cost to the customer, with a comparable product capable of receiving necessary updates and support if a comparable product is reasonably available to the business. This bill would define “connected consumer product” to mean a product, including a physical device, mobile application, or any necessary cloud infrastructure, that is intended for consumer use and is capable of connecting to the internet, either directly or indirectly and would define “end of life” to mean the point after which the manufacturer no longer provides necessary support or updates for a connected consumer product. This bill would specify that a violation of its provisions constitutes a deceptive act or practice under the UCL.