Skip to main content

Bus. & Prof. Code, § 16721 · Article 2. Prohibited Restraints on Competition

Bus. & Prof. Code, § 16721

Verbatim from the official edition

Text — As published in the Legislative Counsel's database, tables dated October 18, 2026 (pubinfo_2025.zip)

Recognizing that the California Constitution prohibits a person from being disqualified from entering or pursuing a business, profession, vocation, or employment because of sex, race, creed, color, or national or ethnic origin, and guarantees the free exercise and enjoyment of religion without discrimination or preference; and recognizing that these and other basic, fundamental constitutional principles are directly affected and denigrated by certain ongoing practices in the business and commercial world, it is necessary that provisions protecting and enhancing a person’s right to enter or pursue business and to freely exercise and enjoy religion, consistent with law, be established.

(a) No person within the jurisdiction of this state shall be excluded from a business transaction on the basis of a policy expressed in any document or writing and imposed by a third party where that policy requires discrimination against that person on the basis of any characteristic listed or defined in subdivision (b) or (e) of Section 51 of the Civil Code or on the basis that the person conducts or has conducted business in a particular location.

(b) No person within the jurisdiction of this state shall require another person to be excluded, or be required to exclude another person, from a business transaction on the basis of a policy expressed in any document or writing that requires discrimination against that other person on the basis of any characteristic listed or defined in subdivision (b) or (e) of Section 51 of the Civil Code or on the basis that the person conducts or has conducted business in a particular location.

(c) Any violation of any provision of this section is a conspiracy against trade.

(d) Nothing in this section shall be construed to prohibit any person, on this basis of his or her individual ideology or preferences, from doing business or refusing to do business with any other person consistent with law.

Notes and commentary — not statutory text

History

Amended by Stats. 2007, Ch. 568, Sec. 3. Effective January 1, 2008.

Source of truth

Edition
As published in the Legislative Counsel's database, tables dated October 18, 2026 (pubinfo_2025.zip)
Official file
https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?lawCode=BPC&sectionNum=16721.
Text hash
sha256 43e749ac6c0c32ebabe15b15bf67be37904fb255a22c83faf2410ae7477a9dbe
Composed by
compose_ca.py 2026-10-22: the Legislative Counsel's CAML content files read by a tokenizer (caml_readers.reader_a); an independent xml.etree reading (caml_readers.reader_b) agrees on every section

This section cites

Provisions in this library that the text above cites, as it prints each citation. A range cited as “ss. 61.13-61.16” links its first and last provisions.

Cited by 2 provisions

Provisions in this library whose text cites Bus. & Prof. Code, § 16721. Each shows the citation as that text prints it.

Procedural information only. Not legal advice and not a substitute for the advice of an attorney. Confirm the current text with the official publisher before relying on it.