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Bus. & Prof. Code, § 17509 · Article 1. False Advertising in General

Bus. & Prof. Code, § 17509

Verbatim from the official edition

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

(a) Any advertisement, including any advertisement over the Internet, soliciting the purchase or lease of a product or service, or any combination thereof, that requires, as a condition of sale, the purchase or lease of a different product or service, or any combination thereof, shall conspicuously disclose in the advertisement the price of all those products or services. This requirement shall not in any way affect the provisions of Sections 16726 and 16727, with respect to unlawful buying arrangements.

(b) Subdivision (a) does not apply to any of the following:

(1) Contractual plans or arrangements complying with this paragraph under which the seller periodically provides the consumer with a form or announcement card which the consumer may use to instruct the seller not to ship the offered merchandise. Any instructions not to ship merchandise included on the form or card shall be printed in type as large as all other instructions and terms stated on the form or card. The form or card shall specify a date by which it shall be mailed by the consumer (the “mailing date”) or received by the seller (the “return date”) to prevent shipment of the offered merchandise. The seller shall mail the form or card either at least 25 days prior to the return date or at least 20 days prior to the mailing date, or provide a mailing date of at least 10 days after receipt by the consumer, except that whichever system the seller chooses for mailing the form or card, shall be calculated to afford the consumer at least 10 days in which to mail his or her form or card. The form or card shall be preaddressed to the seller so that it may serve as a postal reply card or, alternatively, the form or card shall be accompanied by a return envelope addressed to seller. Upon the membership contract or application form or on the same page and immediately adjacent to the contract or form, and in clear and conspicuous language, there shall be disclosed the material terms of the plan or arrangement including all of the following:

(A) That aspect of the plan under which the subscriber shall notify the seller, in the manner provided for by the seller, if the seller does not wish to purchase or receive the selection.

(B) Any obligation assumed by the subscriber to purchase a minimum quantity of merchandise.

(C) The right of a contract-complete subscriber to cancel his or her membership at any time.

(D) Whether billing charges will include an amount for postage and handling.

(2) Other contractual plans or arrangements not covered under subdivision (a), such as continuity plans, subscription arrangements, standing order arrangements, supplements, and series arrangements under which the seller periodically ships merchandise to a consumer who has consented in advance to receive that merchandise on a periodic basis.

(c) This section shall not apply to the publisher of any newspaper, periodical, or other publication, or any radio or television broadcaster, or the owner or operator of any cable, satellite, or other medium of communication who broadcasts or publishes, including over the Internet, an advertisement or offer in good faith, without knowledge of its violation of subdivision (a).

Notes and commentary — not statutory text

History

Amended by Stats. 1998, Ch. 599, Sec. 4. Effective January 1, 1999.

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=17509.
Text hash
sha256 84c45c558eea01cbcda08238a30da771e7f43e00aabdba0f96940401e44afd62
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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.

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.