---
type: "Bill"
title: "Unfair Competition Law: enforcement."
description: "The Unfair Competition Law (UCL) makes various practices unlawful and provides that a person who engages, has engaged, or proposes to engage in unfair competition is liable for a civil penalty, as specified. For actions for relief prosecuted under the UCL, existing law authorizes those actions to be brought by certain public attorneys, including the Attorney General, a city attorney of a city having a population in excess of 750,000, and a county counsel authorized by agreement with the district attorney in actions involving violation of a county ordinance."
jurisdiction: "us/states/ca"
legislature: "California Legislature"
session: "20212022"
identifier: "SB 461"
citation: "California SB 461 (20212022)"
classification: ["bill"]
subjects: ["Unfair Competition Law: enforcement."]
status: "enacted"
primary_sponsors: ["Cortese"]
version_count: 4
action_count: 23
vote_count: 6
first_action: "2021-02-16"
last_action: "2021-07-23"
source: "openstates"
source_identifier: "ocd-bill/8ccf4dbc-5379-4438-9afd-6756e5e2fa29"
source_url: "http://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=202120220SB461"
source_hash: "c475b44562520b5b6ec7b29c804e1a64f682ef7eefad2a091574cd3cc02a7a2c"
vintage: "2026-07-01"
source_snapshot: "https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump"
retrieved_at: "2026-07-06"
confidence: "reported"
tags: ["legislation", "bill", "us-ca"]
---

# California SB 461 (20212022) — Unfair Competition Law: enforcement.

The Unfair Competition Law (UCL) makes various practices unlawful and provides that a person who engages, has engaged, or proposes to engage in unfair competition is liable for a civil penalty, as specified. For actions for relief prosecuted under the UCL, existing law authorizes those actions to be brought by certain public attorneys, including the Attorney General, a city attorney of a city having a population in excess of 750,000, and a county counsel authorized by agreement with the district attorney in actions involving violation of a county ordinance.

## Version chain

The bill's text revisions, in order — the diff chain from filing to enrollment.

1. **02/16/21 - Introduced** (filed) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=202120220SB461&version=20210SB46199INT)
2. **07/23/21 - Chaptered** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=202120220SB461&version=20210SB46197CHP)
3. **SB461** (committee substitute) — [source](http://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=202120220SB461)
4. **07/14/21 - Enrolled** (enrolled) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=202120220SB461&version=20210SB46198ENR)

## Votes

- Do pass — **5–2** (pass) · upper
- Do pass, but first be re-referred to the Committee on [Appropriations] — **9–1** (pass) · upper
- SB 461 Cortese Senate Third Reading By KALRA — **54–20** (pass) · lower
- Do pass. — **8–2** (pass) · lower
- Placed on suspense file — **7–0** (pass) · upper
- 3rd Reading — **31–9** (pass) · upper

## Sponsors

- Cortese — primary (person)

## Timeline

The legislative action history — every referral, reading, and vote.

- **2021-02-16** Introduced. Read first time. To Com. on RLS. for assignment. To print. `introduction, reading-1`
- **2021-02-17** From printer. May be acted upon on or after March 19.
- **2021-02-22** Art. IV. Sec. 8(a) of the Constitution dispensed with.
- **2021-02-22** (Ayes 32. Noes 4.)
- **2021-02-22** Joint Rule 55 suspended. (Ayes 32. Noes 4. Page 272.)
- **2021-02-25** Referred to Coms. on JUD. and APPR. `referral-committee`
- **2021-03-11** Set for hearing March 23.
- **2021-03-24** From committee: Do pass and re-refer to Com. on APPR. (Ayes 9. Noes 1. Page 591.) (March 23). Re-referred to Com. on APPR. `committee-passage, committee-passage-favorable, referral-committee`
- **2021-03-25** Set for hearing April 5.
- **2021-04-05** April 5 hearing: Placed on APPR suspense file.
- **2021-05-14** Set for hearing May 20.
- **2021-05-20** From committee: Do pass. (Ayes 5. Noes 2. Page 1192.) (May 20). `committee-passage, committee-passage-favorable`
- **2021-05-20** Read second time. Ordered to third reading. `reading-1, reading-2`
- **2021-06-01** Read third time. Passed. (Ayes 31. Noes 9. Page 1332.) Ordered to the Assembly. `passage, reading-1, reading-3`
- **2021-06-02** In Assembly. Read first time. Held at Desk. `reading-1`
- **2021-06-10** Referred to Com. on JUD. `referral-committee`
- **2021-07-07** From committee: Do pass. (Ayes 8. Noes 2.) (July 6). `committee-passage, committee-passage-favorable`
- **2021-07-08** Read second time. Ordered to third reading. `reading-1, reading-2`
- **2021-07-12** Read third time. Passed. (Ayes 54. Noes 20. Page 2314.) Ordered to the Senate. `passage, reading-1, reading-3`
- **2021-07-12** In Senate. Ordered to engrossing and enrolling.
- **2021-07-15** Enrolled and presented to the Governor at 2 p.m.
- **2021-07-23** Approved by the Governor. `executive-signature`
- **2021-07-23** Chaptered by Secretary of State. Chapter 140, Statutes of 2021. `became-law`

## Source

OpenStates / OpenCivicData bulk snapshot [2026-07-01](https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump); origin `ocd-bill/8ccf4dbc-5379-4438-9afd-6756e5e2fa29`. Confidence: reported (aggregated from official California legislature records).