republic-os/legislation/us/states/ca/20192020/sb-522.md

---
type: "Bill"
title: "Business entities: filings."
description: "Existing law, namely the General Corporation Law, the Social Purpose Corporations Act, the Nonprofit Public Benefit Corporation Law, the Nonprofit Mutual Benefit Corporation Law, the Nonprofit Religious Corporation Law, and the Cooperative Corporation Law, among other things, prohibits the Secretary of State from filing articles of incorporation that set forth a name likely to mislead the public or that is the same as, or so similar as tends to deceive, the name of specified domestic and foreign corporations, except that a corporation is authorized to adopt a name that is substantially the same as a specified existing domestic or foreign corporation, upon proof of consent by that corporation and a finding by the secretary that the public, under the circumstances, is unlikely to be misled."
jurisdiction: "us/states/ca"
legislature: "California Legislature"
session: "20192020"
identifier: "SB 522"
citation: "California SB 522 (20192020)"
classification: ["bill"]
subjects: ["Business entities: filings."]
status: "enacted"
primary_sponsors: ["Hertzberg"]
version_count: 7
action_count: 28
vote_count: 7
first_action: "2019-02-21"
last_action: "2020-09-30"
source: "openstates"
source_identifier: "ocd-bill/32b657cb-7475-4201-b191-6eb3dd9fc8e9"
source_url: "http://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=201920200SB522"
source_hash: "cf6f1a90136e881e853ed260126fa4a0f6431810fdecf9846004e8b708cbdddb"
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 522 (20192020) — Business entities: filings.

Existing law, namely the General Corporation Law, the Social Purpose Corporations Act, the Nonprofit Public Benefit Corporation Law, the Nonprofit Mutual Benefit Corporation Law, the Nonprofit Religious Corporation Law, and the Cooperative Corporation Law, among other things, prohibits the Secretary of State from filing articles of incorporation that set forth a name likely to mislead the public or that is the same as, or so similar as tends to deceive, the name of specified domestic and foreign corporations, except that a corporation is authorized to adopt a name that is substantially the same as a specified existing domestic or foreign corporation, upon proof of consent by that corporation and a finding by the secretary that the public, under the circumstances, is unlikely to be misled.

## Version chain

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

1. **02/21/19 - Introduced** (filed) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=201920200SB522&version=20190SB52299INT)
2. **01/06/20 - Amended Senate** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=201920200SB522&version=20190SB52298AMD)
3. **01/15/20 - Amended Senate** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=201920200SB522&version=20190SB52297AMD)
4. **07/27/20 - Amended Assembly** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=201920200SB522&version=20190SB52296AMD)
5. **09/30/20 - Chaptered** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=201920200SB522&version=20190SB52294CHP)
6. **SB522** (committee substitute) — [source](http://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=201920200SB522)
7. **09/02/20 - Enrolled** (enrolled) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=201920200SB522&version=20190SB52295ENR)

## Votes

- Unfinished Business SB522 Hertzberg Concurrence — **39–0** (pass) · upper
- 3rd Reading — **37–0** (pass) · upper
- SB 522 Hertzberg Consent Calendar Second Day — **75–0** (pass) · lower
- Do pass. To Consent Calendar. — **18–0** (pass) · lower
- Do pass, but first be re-referred to the Committee on [Appropriations] — **5–0** (pass) · upper
- Do pass and be re-referred to the Committee on [Appropriations] with recommendation: To Consent Calendar — **12–0** (pass) · lower
- Do pass, but first be re-referred to the Committee on [Banking and Financial Institutions] — **8–0** (pass) · upper

## Sponsors

- Hertzberg — primary (person)

## Timeline

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

- **2019-02-21** Introduced. Read first time. To Com. on RLS. for assignment. To print. `introduction, reading-1`
- **2019-02-22** From printer. May be acted upon on or after March 24.
- **2019-03-07** Referred to Com. on RLS. `referral-committee`
- **2020-01-06** From committee with author's amendments. Read second time and amended. Re-referred to Com. on RLS. `reading-1, reading-2, amendment-passage, committee-passage, referral-committee`
- **2020-01-06** Re-referred to Coms. on JUD. and B. & F.I. `referral-committee`
- **2020-01-08** Set for hearing January 14.
- **2020-01-08** Set for hearing January 15 in B. & F.I. pending receipt.
- **2020-01-14** From committee: Do pass and re-refer to Com. on B. & F.I. (Ayes 8. Noes 0. Page 3088.) (January 14). Re-referred to Com. on B. & F.I. `committee-passage-favorable, committee-passage, referral-committee`
- **2020-01-15** From committee with author's amendments. Read second time and amended. Re-referred to Com. on APPR. `reading-1, reading-2, amendment-passage, committee-passage, referral-committee`
- **2020-01-15** From committee: Do pass and re-refer to Com. on APPR. (Ayes 5. Noes 0. Page 3098.) (January 15). Re-referred to Com. on APPR. `committee-passage-favorable, committee-passage, referral-committee`
- **2020-01-16** Set for hearing January 21.
- **2020-01-21** From committee: Be ordered to second reading pursuant to Senate Rule 28.8. `committee-passage, reading-2`
- **2020-01-22** Read second time. Ordered to third reading. `reading-1, reading-2`
- **2020-01-23** Read third time. Passed. (Ayes 37. Noes 0. Page 3130.) Ordered to the Assembly. `passage, reading-3, reading-1`
- **2020-01-23** In Assembly. Read first time. Held at Desk. `reading-1`
- **2020-06-18** Referred to Com. on B. & F. `referral-committee`
- **2020-07-27** From committee with author's amendments. Read second time and amended. Re-referred to Com. on B. & F. `reading-1, reading-2, amendment-passage, committee-passage, referral-committee`
- **2020-07-27** July 27 hearing postponed by committee.
- **2020-08-12** From committee: Do pass and re-refer to Com. on APPR. with recommendation: To consent calendar. (Ayes 12. Noes 0.) (August 12). Re-referred to Com. on APPR. `committee-passage-favorable, committee-passage, referral-committee`
- **2020-08-18** From committee: Do pass. Ordered to consent calendar. (Ayes 18. Noes 0.) (August 18). `committee-passage-favorable, committee-passage`
- **2020-08-19** Read second time. Ordered to consent calendar. `reading-1, reading-2`
- **2020-08-30** Read third time. Passed. (Ayes 75. Noes 0. Page 5282.) Ordered to the Senate. `passage, reading-3, reading-1`
- **2020-08-30** In Senate. Concurrence in Assembly amendments pending.
- **2020-08-30** Ordered to special consent calendar.
- **2020-08-30** Assembly amendments concurred in. (Ayes 39. Noes 0.) Ordered to engrossing and enrolling. `amendment-passage, committee-passage-favorable`
- **2020-09-08** Enrolled and presented to the Governor at 2 p.m.
- **2020-09-30** Approved by the Governor. `executive-signature`
- **2020-09-30** Chaptered by Secretary of State. Chapter 361, Statutes of 2020.

## Source

OpenStates / OpenCivicData bulk snapshot [2026-07-01](https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump); origin `ocd-bill/32b657cb-7475-4201-b191-6eb3dd9fc8e9`. Confidence: reported (aggregated from official California legislature records).