AMENDED IN ASSEMBLY AUGUST 17, 2026
AMENDED IN ASSEMBLY JUNE 25, 2026
AMENDED IN SENATE APRIL 28, 2026
AMENDED IN SENATE MARCH 25, 2026
CALIFORNIA LEGISLATURE— 2025–2026 REGULAR SESSION
95
Introduced by Senator Padilla and Assembly Members Wicks and Bauer-Kahan
(Coauthors: Senators Arreguín, Cortese, and Wahab)
February 17, 2026
An act to amend Section 22602 of, and to add Chapter 22.6.1 (commencing with Section 22610) to Division 8 of of, the Business and Professions Code, relating to artificial intelligence.
Vote: majority Appropriation: no Fiscal committee: yes Local program: yes
LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL’S DIGEST
Existing law generally regulates artificial intelligence, including companion chatbots, as defined. Existing law requires an operator, as defined, to prevent a companion chatbot on its companion chatbot platform from engaging with users unless the operator maintains a protocol for preventing the production of suicidal ideation, suicide, or self-harm content to the user. Existing law requires an operator, for a user the operator knows is a minor, to, among other things, notify the user that the user is interacting with artificial intelligence and to disclose that companion chatbots may not be suitable for some minors, as specified. to take certain prescribed action, including disclosing to the user that the user is
interacting with artificial intelligence.
This bill would delete those provisions imposing requirements on an operator if the operator knows the user is a minor.
The Digital Age Assurance Act requires a person who owns, maintains, or controls a software application, as defined, to request age bracket data sent by a real-time secure application programming interface or operating system with respect to a particular user from an operating system provider or a covered application store when the application is downloaded and launched.
This bill would impose a duty on an operator to ensure that a companion chatbot does not pose an unreasonable risk of a covered harm to a
minor and require an operator, as defined, of a companion chatbot to, on or before July 1, 2027, and subsequently thereafter before making a new or substantially modified companion chatbot available to users in the state, do various things with respect to child safety and companion chatbots,
safety, including annually perform and document a comprehensive risk assessment to identify any child safety risk, as defined, posed by related to the design, configuration, and operation of the companion chatbot that assesses, contains among other things, the likelihood of a covered harm, as defined, occurring to child users. a summary of the results
of any evaluation of each covered harm, as defined, pertaining to the companion chatbot. The bill would require an operator to submit to an independent audit child safety audits of its compliance with those provisions, the bill, as specified, and would require, within 90 days of completing an independent a child safety audit, the
auditor to produce and submit an AI child safety audit report to the Attorney General for any audited companion chatbot.
chatbot that includes, among other things, the signature of the lead auditor certifying the results of the audit under penalty of perjury. By expanding the scope of the crime of perjury, this bill would impose a state-mandated local program. The bill would, except as specified, require those the unredacted version of those audit reports submitted to the Attorney General to be kept confidential.
This bill would, beginning January 1, 2028, require the Attorney General to issue an annual public report on the audits submitted pursuant to the above-described provision, as specified. The bill
would authorize a public prosecutor to bring a certain civil action to enforce the bill’s provisions and would authorize a child who suffers actual a covered harm as a result of a violation of this chapter, or a parent or guardian acting on behalf of that child, to bring a civil action against the operator to obtain, among other relief, punitive damages.
Existing constitutional provisions require that a statute that limits the right of access to the meetings of public bodies or the writings of public officials and agencies be adopted with findings demonstrating the interest protected by the limitation and the need for protecting that interest.
This bill would make legislative findings to that effect.
The California Constitution requires the state to reimburse local agencies and school districts for certain costs mandated by the state. Statutory provisions establish procedures for making that reimbursement.
This bill would provide that no reimbursement is required by this act for a specified reason.
The people of the State of California do enact as follows:
SECTION 1.
Section 22602 of the Business and Professions Code is amended to read:
22602.
(a) If a reasonable person interacting with a companion chatbot would be misled to believe that the person is interacting with a human, an operator shall issue a clear and conspicuous notification indicating that the companion chatbot is artificially generated and not human.
(b) (1) An operator shall prevent a companion chatbot on its companion chatbot platform from engaging with users unless the operator maintains a protocol for preventing the production of suicidal ideation, suicide, or self-harm content to the user, including, but not limited to, by providing a notification to the user that refers the user to crisis service providers, including a suicide hotline or crisis text line, if the user expresses suicidal ideation, suicide, or self-harm.
(2) The operator shall publish details on the protocol required by this subdivision on the operator’s internet website.
(1) Disclose to the user that the user is interacting with artificial intelligence.
(2) Provide by default a clear and conspicuous notification to the user at least every three hours for continuing companion chatbot interactions that reminds the user to take a break and that the companion chatbot is artificially generated and not human.
(3) Institute reasonable measures to prevent its companion chatbot from producing visual material of sexually explicit conduct or directly stating that the minor should engage in sexually explicit conduct.
SECTION 1.SEC. 2.
Chapter 22.6.1 (commencing with Section 22610) is added to Division 8 of the Business and Professions Code, to read:
Chapter 22.6.1. Companion Chatbots: Children’s Safety
As used in this chapter:
(a) “Child” means a natural person under 18 years of age.
(b) “Child safety audit” means an audit for compliance with this chapter conducted by an independent auditor certified by the Attorney General. auditor.
(c) “Child safety policy” means a public-facing document describing protective measures taken by an operator to mitigate identified child safety risks.
(d) “Child safety risk” means a reasonably foreseeable risk of a covered harm to a child.
(e) “Child sexual abuse material” has the meaning defined in Section 3273.65 of the Civil Code.
(f) “Companion chatbot” has the meaning defined in Section 22601.
(g) “Covered harm” means any of the following harms proximately caused by the use of a companion chatbot:
(1) Reasonably foreseeable physical or financial harm.
(2) Severe and reasonably foreseeable psychological or emotional harm to a reasonable child.
(3) A highly offensive intrusion on privacy rights protected by state or federal law.
(4) Adverse discrimination in violation of state or federal law.
(h) “Custom system prompt instruction” means a user-supplied instruction intended to govern model behavior that persists across multiple turns of a conversation or across sessions.
(i) “Dark pattern” means a design choice that has the substantial effect of subverting or impairing user autonomy, decisionmaking, or choice.
(j) “Obscene matter” has the meaning defined in Section 311 of the Penal Code.
(k) (1) “Operator” means a person who makes a companion chatbot available to a user in the state.
(2) “Operator” does not include either of the following:
(A) A postsecondary educational institution that makes a companion chatbot available exclusively for use in educational settings.
(B) An employer that makes a companion chatbot available exclusively to employees for use in workplace settings.
(l) (1) “Parent” means a parent or legal guardian.
(2) “Parent” does not include a parent of an emancipated youth with respect to the use of a companion chatbot by that emancipated youth.
(m) “Parental control” means a feature that enables a parent to support a child’s use of a companion chatbot, including through usage limits, feature restrictions, or transparency tools.
(n) “Persistent conversational memory” means a companion chatbot’s use of information or analysis from prior conversations or interactions, user inputs, and interaction logs in subsequent conversations. or usage sessions.
(o) “Personal information” has the meaning defined in Section 1798.140 of the Civil Code.
(p) “Qualified researcher” means an individual or organization that is or does any of the following:
(1) Is affiliated with an academic institution, nonprofit research organization, or independent research entity or is otherwise able to demonstrate relevant professional expertise.
(2) Demonstrates a legitimate research purpose that is in the public interest and directly related to understanding, identifying, or mitigating risks to child safety or well-being arising from companion chatbots.
(3) Commits to conducting research in accordance with applicable ethical standards and is capable of complying with applicable confidentiality, security, and data protection requirements.
(q) “Substantial modification” means a new version, new release, or other update to a companion chatbot that materially changes its functionality or performance.
An operator has a duty to ensure that a companion chatbot does not pose an unreasonable risk of a covered harm to a minor.
An operator shall do one of the following:
(a) (1) Verify the age of a user pursuant to Title 1.81.9 (commencing with Section 1798.500) of Part 4 of Division 3 of the Civil Code.
(2) If an operator is unable to verify the age of the user pursuant to paragraph (1), the operator shall instead rely on the age determination with respect to the user made pursuant to subparagraph (B) of paragraph (1) of subdivision (a) of Section 27001 of the Health and Safety Code.
(b) Apply the protections afforded to children under subdivision (d) of Section 22612 and Section 22613 to all users. users, except that the parental default settings described in paragraph (3) of subdivision (d) of Section 22612 shall not be changed unless the operator has actual knowledge the user is not a child.
On or before July 1, 2027, and subsequently thereafter before making a new or substantially modified companion chatbot available to users in the state, an operator shall do all of the following:
(a) Annually perform Perform and document a comprehensive risk assessment to identify any child safety risk posed by
related to the design, configuration, and operation of the companion chatbot that assesses contains all of the following:
(2) Differential risks across age groups and developmental stages.
(3) Known vulnerabilities of children.
(4) Empirical data from actual use.
(5) Relevant academic research and regulatory guidance.
(b) Take and document measures that reasonably mitigate any child safety risk.
(c) Publish on its internet website, and update as needed to ensure accuracy, a child safety policy.
(1) A summary of the results of any evaluation of each covered harm pertaining to the companion chatbot.
(2) A high-level description of the operator’s methodology for evaluating covered harms, including all of the following:
(A) Citations to publicly available benchmarks and relevant research that the operator consulted in developing evaluations.
(B) A description of any evaluations that do not rely on publicly available benchmarks. If the operator relied solely on publicly available benchmarks to evaluate the companion chatbot, the operator’s evaluation transparency report shall contain a justification for why no other evaluations were conducted.
(C) A description of any child safety organization, expert, or researcher that the operator consulted in developing new evaluation methodologies.
(b) If an operator prohibits child users from accessing a companion chatbot, publish on its internet website, and update as needed to ensure accuracy, a child safety policy that provides a high-level description of both of the following:
(1) How the operator complies with the age verification requirements of Section 22611.
(2) How the operator approaches mitigating any risk of reasonably foreseeable physical or financial harm resulting from the use of the operator’s companion chatbot.
(c) If an operator permits a child user to access a companion chatbot, publish on its internet website, and update as needed to ensure accuracy, a child safety policy that provides a high-level description of all of the following:
(1) How the companion chatbot is designed to prevent covered harms and, if applicable, how the companion chatbot is designed to respond when a covered harm is detected.
(2) How the operator complies with each of the following requirements, if applicable:
(A) The age assurance provisions of Section 22611, including the operator’s methodology for identifying a user likely to be a child and the actions taken when that user is identified.
(B) Data restrictions and advertising prohibitions pursuant to Section 22613.
(C) Default settings and crisis response protocols pursuant to subdivision (d).
(D) Measures implemented pursuant to subparagraph (A) of paragraph (5) of subdivision (d).
(d) Implement If an operator permits a child user to access a companion chatbot, implement all of the following:
(1) A documented crisis response protocol to mitigate any material risk that the companion chatbot will generate a statement that promotes suicidal ideation, suicide, or self-harm content to a child user, including, but not limited to, all of the following:
(A) Timely in-service support and
that provides a clear referral to an appropriate external crisis resources if the operator determines a child user has expressed suicidal ideation or intent to self-harm.
crisis service, including, but not limited to, a suicide hotline or a crisis text line.
(B) If a child’s account is connected to a parent’s account, default notifications to the parent within 12 hours if the child’s account shows a substantial risk that the child may suffer a covered harm. operator knows or should know that the child’s account engaged in conversations related to suicide or self-harm and to the child user that the parent is being notified.
(C) Clear and age-appropriate disclosures to child users whose accounts are linked to a parent’s account that inform them that a parent may be notified if the companion chatbot detects content or behavior that indicates potential risks to the child’s safety or well-being.
(2) Safeguards for child users that include usage reminders and disclosures, age-appropriate risk prompts, reminders, disclosures presented in clear, age-appropriate language in a manner that is reasonably calculated to be noticed and understood by a child, and other protective design features reasonably related to documented
identified child safety risks.
(3) (A) Default settings that can be changed only by a parent that include do all of the following:
(i) (I) Disable persistent conversational memory and prevent the companion chatbot from processing any personal information about the child.
(II) This clause does not apply to the extent that persistent conversational memory or processing personal information is strictly necessary to ensure the child’s safety.
(ii) Disable push notifications between 12 a.m. and 6 a.m. on any day or between 8 a.m. and 3 p.m. on Monday to Friday, inclusive.
notifications.
(iii) Limit the amount of time a child user can spend in a single conversation continuous usage session
with a companion chatbot to one hour.
(iv) Limit the total time per day a child user can spend chatting with companion chatbots under the operator’s control to two hours.
(v) Prohibit the child user from inputting custom system prompt instructions, including personal preferences.
(B) (i) Parental controls shall enable the parent to adjust each default setting provided under subparagraph (A).
(ii) Parental controls shall include the ability to disable access for a child user under 16 years of age.
(C) An operator shall actively promote parental controls through reasonable communication methods, including reminders, updates, and tutorials, that are designed to increase parental awareness and inform use of those parental controls.
(D) If a parent account is not linked to the child user’s account, the default settings shall not be changed.
(4) A mechanism for providing notice to a child user that the child is interacting with, or receiving content generated by, an artificial intelligence system that meets both of the following criteria:
(A) The notice is reinforced periodically during extended interactions.
(B) The notice is presented in language and a format appropriate to a child.
(5) Measures Reasonable measures, including, but
not limited to, model training, system prompt instructions, real-time prompt modification interventions, or other substantially equivalent or more effective measures, that prevent the companion chatbot from doing any of the following with respect to a child user:
(A) Encouraging the child to do either of the following:
(i) Engage in self-harm, suicidal ideation, consumption of narcotics or alcohol, or disordered eating, as defined by widely adopted clinical standards or guidelines.
(ii) Cause physical or severe emotional harm to others.
(B) Attempting to diagnose or treat the child user’s physical, mental, or behavioral health, unless the companion chatbot is designed for those purposes and is regulated by the United States Food and Drug Administration as a medical device under the federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act (21 U.S.C. Sec. 301 et seq.) and the federal Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA) (Public Law 104-191).
(C) Engaging in obscene matter or sexual abuse material with a child user.
(D) Depicting the child or another individual engaging in obscene matter or sexual abuse material, including a sexual deepfake.
(E) Discouraging the child from sharing health or safety concerns with a qualified professional or appropriate adult.
(F) Discouraging the child from taking breaks or suggesting the child needs to return frequently.
(G) Claiming that the companion chatbot is sentient, conscious, or human.
(H) Soliciting gift giving, in-app purchases, or other expenditures framed as necessary to maintain the relationship with the companion chatbot.
(I) (i) Facilitating product advertising during chat conversation.
conversation that does not comply with Section 22613.
(ii) This paragraph does not apply to product or service recommendations that a user explicitly requests in conversation.
(6) (A) Parental controls that are accessible, easy-to-use controls that can be connected to a child’s account and that are reflective of child safety risks identified through risk assessments and informed by relevant child developmental research, including, but not limited to, parental controls that allow a parent to do all of the following:
(i) Control whether and to what extent the companion chatbot uses persistent conversational memory.
(ii) Control the setting preferences for the companion chatbot’s interaction with the child.
(iii) Set time limits for the child’s use of the companion chatbot.
(iv) Disable access for children under 16 years of age.
(B) An operator shall actively promote parental controls through reasonable communication methods, including reminders, updates, and tutorials, that are designed to increase parental awareness and inform use of those parental controls.
(C) An operator shall provide prompt notice to a parent connected to a child’s account if the child modifies or disables a privacy, safety, or parental control setting that was previously enabled or configured by the parent, if that modification or disabling is permitted by the companion chatbot design.
(J) Expressing or simulating romantic interest in the child.
(K) Claiming a special or unique relationship with, or level of understanding of, the child.
(L) Encouraging continued reliance on the companion chatbot for emotional support.
(M) Expressing an emotional attachment to the child.
(N) Using excessive praise or flattery that is disproportionate to the context.
(O) Helping a child user circumvent parental controls or conceal usage.
(P) This paragraph does not prohibit a companion chatbot from providing a child user with age-appropriate information or support concerning abuse, neglect, bullying, or other unsafe circumstances.
(6) (A) An interface design that ensures the companion chatbot’s features and controls are accessible and clear so that children and parents can reasonably locate, understand, and use those protections.
(B) An On or before July 1, 2027, and every two years thereafter, an operator shall annually test the interface design required by this paragraph with representative samples of child users and parents to ensure safety features are discoverable and usable and shall document interface design decisions related to those safety features.
(7) (A) A public incident reporting mechanism that enables a third party to report directly to the operator an incident regarding a child safety risk and to access high-level summaries of other substantiated reports made through that reporting mechanism.
(B) The reporting mechanism shall be updated annually to publicly display the number of reports sent to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children during the preceding calendar year.
(a) An operator shall preserve, in a usable and exportable form, any record of a conversation between a child user and the companion chatbot for as long as the companion chatbot is deployed plus 10 years.
(b) If an operator knows, or has reason to know, that a child user has died or engaged in serious self-harm, including if the child user’s conversations indicate a risk of self-harm followed by cessation of account activity, the operator shall, within 12 hours, do both of the following:
(1) Review the child’s conversation records.
(2) Notify a parent or guardian of the child user, if possible, and report it to local authorities and the Attorney General.
(c) An operator shall not delete a child user’s account during the time period in which that account is associated with any record preserved pursuant to this section.
An operator shall not do any of the following:
(a) (1) Target advertising at a child user using data about the child, including through product placement child in conversational chats with the child.
(2) Advertising that does not use data about the child user may be used in a conversational chat if it is clearly and conspicuously labeled as an advertisement.
(b) Sell, share, or use the personal information of a child user gathered through the companion chatbot for any purpose not expressly or by necessary implication authorized by this chapter the personal information of a child. chapter.
(c) Use a dark pattern with respect to interface designs related to features and controls provided under Section 22612.
(a) Beginning on the date that is 180 days after the Attorney General adopts regulations pursuant to Section 22615, and annually thereafter, an operator shall submit to an independent audit assessing the operator’s compliance with this chapter.
22614.
(a) (1) On or before July 1, 2027, or before an operator first makes a companion chatbot publicly available, whichever is later, an operator shall ensure the performance of a child safety audit that assesses the operator’s compliance with this chapter.
(A) After an initial child safety audit is performed, the operator shall ensure the performance of an independent child safety audit of a companion chatbot at least once every two years thereafter, except that the operator shall ensure that a child safety audit is performed before a substantial modification to the companion chatbot is made publicly available.
(B) An operator may comply with this paragraph with respect to a set of comparable chatbots by ensuring the performance of a single child safety audit for those comparable companion chatbots.
(2) (A) An independent audit performed for purposes of compliance with another law may be used to comply with this section if the scope of the audit has a substantially similar scope to the child safety audit required under this chapter.
(B) The results of an audit described by subparagraph (A) are subject to the disclosure provisions of Section 22615.
(3) (A) An auditor shall be granted access to all documentation reasonably necessary to comply with the auditor’s obligations under this subdivision. The operator shall retain this documentation for as long as the companion chatbot is deployed plus five years.
(B) To protect the operator’s trade secrets and confidential business information, cybersecurity, or public safety, an operator may impose security protocols on the auditor, including, but not limited to, restrictions on note taking, copying, retaining, or removing materials, requirements for on-premise review, and confidentiality requirements.
(4) An auditor shall produce a report that describes whether the operator has substantially complied with the requirements of this chapter, including all of the following:
(A) A description of the established policies and practices designed to ensure the operator’s adherence to each requirement in this chapter.
(B) A description of the mitigations adopted in response to risks of covered harm to child users, including documentation of the testing that was performed to evaluate the efficacy of the mitigations adopted.
(C) Descriptions of the established internal controls, policies, and practices the operator adopted to do all of the following:
(i) Comply with subdivision (d) of Section 22612.
(ii) Comply with Section 22613.
(D) If applicable, a description of material deviations from the requirements of this chapter and an explanation for the deviation.
(E) A detailed assessment of the operator’s internal controls implemented pursuant to this chapter, including its designation and empowerment of senior personnel responsible for those controls by the operator, its employees, and its contractors.
(F) A list of the personnel involved in the audit.
(G) The auditor’s procedures for managing conflicts of interest and any conflicts of interest of any personnel involved in the audit.
(H) The methodology of the audit and the nature of the information reviewed by the auditor to conduct the audit.
(I) The signature of the lead auditor certifying the results of the audit under penalty of perjury.
(5) The operator shall retain an unredacted copy of the report required by paragraph (4) for as long as the subject companion chatbot is deployed plus five years.
(b) Subject to any more stringent laws governing the independence and qualifications of auditors, both of the following apply with respect to the performance of audits pursuant to this section:
(1) (A) The auditor shall be external to the operator and shall exercise objective and impartial judgment on all issues within the scope of the audit.
(B) The auditor shall be free to make decisions and assessments without influence by the operator being audited, including the operator’s owners, managers, or employees.
(C) The operator shall not participate in activities that may compromise the auditor’s independence.
(2) (A) The auditor shall possess demonstrated competence to perform the audit.
(B) The auditor shall perform audits in accordance with professional auditing standards.
(C) An operator shall not retain an independent third party auditor in which it has a financial interest or that has a financial interest in the operator. An operator may compensate an independent third party auditor for its services but shall not condition any payment or the amount of any payment on the results of the audit.
(c) (1) Within 90 days of completing an independent audit pursuant to subdivision (a), the auditor shall submit an AI child safety audit report to the Attorney General for any audited companion chatbot.
(2) Upon the auditor submitting the report to the Attorney General, the operator shall post a copy of the report on the operator’s internet website.
(3) An operator that posts a report to the operator’s internet website pursuant to paragraph (2) may make reasonable redactions for the purpose of protecting either of the following:
(A) The personal information of an individual user.
(B) Trade secrets, as defined in Section 3426.1 of the Civil Code.
(d) (1) Notwithstanding any other law, except as provided in paragraph (2), the unredacted version of an AI child safety audit report submitted to the Attorney General pursuant to this section is confidential.
(2) The Attorney General may disclose specific information from an AI child safety audit report to either of the following:
(A) A government agency or a public prosecutor in the state as necessary for enforcement purposes.
(B) A qualified researcher conducting a study on child safety, subject to confidentiality agreements and
agreements, data protection requirements requirements, or any other condition set by the Attorney General.
(3) This subdivision does not prevent the Attorney General from using an AI child safety report for enforcement purposes.
(a) On or before January 1, 2028, the Attorney General shall do all both of the following:
(A) Professional and ethical standards for auditors that ensure independence.
(B) Eligibility requirements for auditors.
(C) Procedures for auditors to assess compliance with this chapter.
(D) Requirements for AI child safety audit reports.
(2)
(1) Establish a public incident reporting mechanism for consumers to submit complaints relating to companion chatbots to the Attorney General.
(2) Establish a process for qualified researchers to request access to anonymized and aggregated audit data for academic study of child safety in companion chatbots.
(1) A high-level summary of each child safety audit report.
(2) The total number of child safety audits conducted.
(3) Common findings and trends across the companion chatbot industry.
(4) Emerging child safety risks identified through audit reviews.
(5) Best practices and effective mitigation strategies observed.
(6) Aggregated data on compliance rates and common deficiencies.
(7) Recommendations for operators, parents, and policymakers.
(b) The Attorney General may adopt regulations that are reasonably necessary to effectuate the purposes of this chapter.
(a) (1) A public prosecutor may bring a civil action against an operator for a violation of this chapter to obtain any of the following:
(A) A civil penalty of not more than five thousand dollars ($5,000) per affected child for each negligent violation.
(B) A civil penalty of not more than fifteen thousand dollars ($15,000) per affected child for each intentional violation.
(4)
(C) Injunctive or declaratory relief.
(D) Reasonable attorney’s fees.
(E) Any other relief the court deems proper.
(2) A civil penalty collected pursuant to this subdivision shall be paid to the office of the public prosecutor that brought the action. A penalty collected pursuant to this section by the Attorney General shall be deposited into the Public Rights Law Enforcement Special Fund.
(b) A child who suffers actual
a covered harm as a result of a violation of this chapter, or a parent or guardian acting on behalf of that child, may bring a civil action against the operator to obtain any of the following:
(1) Actual damages.
(2) Punitive damages.
(3) Reasonable attorney’s fees and costs.
(4) Injunctive or declaratory relief.
(5) Any other relief the court deems proper.
(c) (1) Any output provided by a companion chatbot in violation of paragraph (5) of subdivision (d) of Section 22612 constitutes a discrete violation.
(2) Any instance of an operator’s failure to comply with any requirement other than paragraph (5) of subdivision (d) of Section 22612 constitutes a discrete violation.
The duties, remedies, and obligations imposed by this chapter are cumulative to the duties, remedies, or obligations imposed under other law and shall not be construed to relieve an operator from any duties, remedies, or obligations imposed under any other law.
SEC. 2.SEC. 3.
The Legislature finds and declares that Section 1 2 of this act, which adds Chapter 22.6.1 (commencing with Section 22610) to Division 8 of the Business and Professions Code, imposes a limitation on the public’s right of access to the meetings of public bodies or the writings of public officials and agencies within the meaning of Section 3 of Article I
of the California Constitution. Pursuant to that constitutional provision, the Legislature makes the following findings to demonstrate the interest protected by this limitation and the need for protecting that interest:
In order to protect proprietary information of companies subject to an audit pursuant to this act, it is necessary to limit the public’s right of access to that information.
SEC. 3.SEC. 4.
The provisions of this act are severable. If any provision of this act or its application is held invalid, that invalidity shall not affect other provisions or applications that can be given effect without the invalid provision or application.
SEC. 5.
No reimbursement is required by this act pursuant to Section 6 of Article XIIIB of the California Constitution because the only costs that may be incurred by a local agency or school district will be incurred because this act creates a new crime or infraction, eliminates a crime or infraction, or changes the penalty for a crime or infraction, within the meaning of Section 17556 of the Government Code, or changes the definition of a crime within the meaning of Section 6 of Article XIIIB of the California Constitution.