Civ. Code, § 1797.81 · Chapter 4. Grey Market Goods
Civ. Code, § 1797.81
Text — As published in the Legislative Counsel's database, tables dated October 18, 2026 (pubinfo_2025.zip)
(a) Every retail seller who offers grey market goods for sale shall post a conspicuous sign at the product’s point of display and affix to the product or its package a conspicuous ticket, label, or tag disclosing any or all of the following, whichever is applicable:
(1) The item is not covered by a manufacturer’s express written warranty valid in the United States (however, any implied warranty provided by law still exists).
(2) The item is not compatible with United States electrical currents.
(3) The item is not compatible with United States broadcast frequencies.
(4) Replacement parts are not available through the manufacturer’s United States distributors.
(5) Compatible accessories are not available through the manufacturer’s United States distributors.
(6) The item is not accompanied by instructions in English.
(7) The item is not eligible for a manufacturer’s rebate.
(8) Any other incompatibility or nonconformity with relevant domestic standards known to the seller.
(b) The disclosure described in paragraph (1) of subdivision (a) shall not be required to be made by a retail seller with respect to grey market goods that are accompanied by an express written warranty provided by the retail seller, provided that each of the following conditions is satisfied:
(1) The protections and other benefits that are provided to the buyer by the express written warranty provided by the retail seller are equal to or better than the protections and other benefits that are provided to buyers in the United States of America by the manufacturer’s express written warranty that normally accompanies the goods.
(2) The express written warranty conforms to the requirements of the Song-Beverly Consumer Warranty Act, (Chapter 1 (commencing with Section 1790)), including, but not limited to, the warranty disclosure standards specified in Section 1793.1, and the standards applicable to service and repair facilities specified in Section 1793.2.
(3) The retail seller has posted a conspicuous sign at the product’s point of sale or display, or has affixed to the product or its package a conspicuous ticket, label, or tag that informs prospective buyers that copies of all of the warranties applicable to the products offered for sale by the retail seller are available to prospective buyers for inspection upon request.
(4) The retail seller has complied with the provisions on presale availability of written warranties set forth in the regulations of the Federal Trade Commission adopted pursuant to the federal Magnuson-Moss Warranty-Federal Trade Commission Improvement Act (see 15 U.S.C.A. Sec. 2302(b)(1)(A) and 16 C.F.R. 702.1 et seq.).
(c) Nothing in subdivision (b) shall affect the obligations of a retail seller to make the disclosures, if any, required by any other paragraph of subdivision (a).
Notes and commentary — not statutory text
History
Added by Stats. 1986, Ch. 1497, Sec. 2.
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=CIV§ionNum=1797.81.
- Text hash
- sha256 8964ef3ed090713325aa98a8180257bcf0edd98ae149a9ba2b38b0960777ef6a
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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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