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Civ. Code, § 81 · Part 2.9. CALIFORNIA FAIR DEALERSHIP LAW

Civ. Code, § 81

Verbatim from the official edition

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

As used in this part:

(a) “Person” means a natural person, partnership, joint venture, corporation, limited liability company, or other entity.

(b) “Dealership” means a contract or agreement, either express or implied, whether oral or written, between two or more persons, by which a person is granted the right to sell or distribute goods or services, or to use a trade name, trademark, service mark, logotype, or advertising or other commercial symbol, in which there is a community of interest in the business of offering, selling, or distributing goods or services at wholesale, or at retail, by lease, agreement, or otherwise.

(c) “Grantor” means a person who sells, leases, or otherwise transfers a dealership.

(d) “Community of interest” means a continuing financial interest between the grantor and grantee in either the operation of the dealership or the marketing of goods or services.

(e) “Dealer” means a person who is a grantee of a dealership situated in this state.

(f) “Grant” means a sale, lease, or transfer of any kind.

Notes and commentary — not statutory text

History

Amended by Stats. 1994, Ch. 1010, Sec. 29. Effective January 1, 1995.

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&sectionNum=81.
Text hash
sha256 76232bab2070dac24c5f55e20f1f8c6de4b10f2b7a955226bcaa9aae93b541c9
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

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.