California
What protections exist today
California is the only state with a digital-goods-specific consumer protection statute. AB 2426 (operative January 1, 2025) makes it false advertising to market digital goods with "buy"/"purchase" language unless the seller provides an offline-usable copy or obtains the customer's affirmative acknowledgment that they are licensing, not owning. California's general false advertising law (B&P §17500) and Unfair Competition Law (B&P §17200) provide the enforcement hooks.
What's missing
AB 2426 is a disclosure law, not an ownership law: it does not require refunds when access is revoked, does not require offline copies or end-of-life patches, and does not restrict license revocation itself. There is no private right to keep, get refunded for, or receive an offline copy of a revoked purchase.
Tracked legislation
AB 2426: Consumer protection: false advertising: digital goods
Prohibits sellers of digital goods (games, apps, movies, music, ebooks) from advertising or selling with terms like "buy" or "purchase" unless the seller either provides a downloadable copy usable offline or receives an affirmative acknowledgment that the customer is buying a revocable license. Subscriptions and free goods are exempt. Signed September 24, 2024; operative January 1, 2025. Enforcement runs through California's false advertising law.
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