Unfair and deceptive practices.

Existing law, the Consumer Legal Remedies Act, makes unlawful specified unfair methods of competition and unfair or deceptive acts or practices undertaken by any person in a transaction intended to result or which results in the sale or lease of goods or services to any consumer. This bill would provide that, for purposes of specified unfair methods of competition and unfair or deceptive acts or practices that a person who provides data, information, and content to a business is a customer in a transaction. This bill would make it an unfair or deceptive practice for an online platform operator to fail to act in accordance with its community guidelines, terms and conditions, content management policies, content management features, or other promises that are presented to users of the online platform, as defined. The bill would also make it an unfair or deceptive practice for an online platform operator to use design, code, or artificial intelligence to modify or manipulate a user interface with the purpose or substantial effect of, among other things, cultivating compulsive usage, as defined, or obscuring, subverting, or impairing user autonomy, decisionmaking, or choice to obtain user data. The bill would require an online platform to provide a public reporting tool to flag instance of banned designs. The bill would require that public reporting tool to contain publically viewable reports. The bill would authorize the Attorney General, at their discretion, to release guidance for compliance.