Bus. & Prof. Code, § 6153 · Article 9. Unlawful Solicitation
Bus. & Prof. Code, § 6153
Text — As published in the Legislative Counsel's database, tables dated October 18, 2026 (pubinfo_2025.zip)
(a) A person, firm, partnership, association, or corporation violating subdivision (a) of Section 6152 is punishable, upon a first conviction, by imprisonment in a county jail for not more than one year or by a fine not exceeding fifteen thousand dollars ($15,000), or by both that imprisonment and fine. Upon a second or subsequent conviction, a person, firm, partnership, association, or corporation is punishable by imprisonment in a county jail for not more than one year, or by imprisonment pursuant to subdivision (h) of Section 1170 of the Penal Code for two, three, or four years, or by a fine not exceeding fifteen thousand dollars ($15,000), or by both that imprisonment and fine.
(b) A person employed either as an officer, director, trustee, clerk, servant or agent of this state or of any county or other municipal corporation or subdivision thereof, who is found guilty of violating any of the provisions of this article, shall forfeit the right to their office and employment in addition to any other penalty provided in this article.
(c) Any person may bring a civil action for a violation of subdivision (a) of Section 6152 for the following remedies:
(1) Statutory damages of a minimum of five thousand dollars ($5,000) up to a maximum of one hundred thousand dollars ($100,000) per violation, or three times the amount of actual damages, whichever is larger. The amount of statutory damages in this subdivision shall be determined pursuant to subdivision (d).
(2) Attorney’s fees.
(3) Injunctive or declaratory relief.
(4) Any other relief the court deems proper.
(d) In assessing the amount of statutory damages, the court shall consider any one or more of the relevant circumstances presented by the case, including, but not limited to, the nature and seriousness of the misconduct, the number of violations, the persistence of the misconduct, the length of time over which the misconduct occurred, the willfulness of the defendant’s misconduct, and the defendant’s assets, liabilities, and net worth.
(e) The right of action under this section exists independently of any enforcement action or inaction by any governmental agency or official.
Notes and commentary — not statutory text
History
Amended by Stats. 2025, Ch. 645, Sec. 1. (SB 37) Effective January 1, 2026.
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§ionNum=6153.
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- sha256 7955d8c827c79d41c2a9816d13fb9b5e6594f5c3b821d4fe4b5dea33ac4cd022
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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
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Business and Professions Code
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