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