Bill Jeopardizes Discounts and Rewards Programs Used by Nearly 80% of Californians<\/p>\n
SACRAMENTO, Calif.<\/strong> \u2014 The California Retailers Association (CRA) today expressed frustration that supporters of AB 2564 continue to advance legislation that threatens the discounts, loyalty programs, and personalized savings opportunities relied upon by millions of California consumers at a time when affordability remains one of the state’s most pressing concerns.<\/p>\n While proponents portray AB 2564 as a transparency measure, retailers, the businesses that interact directly with consumers every day, have repeatedly attempted to work with Assemblymember Chris Ward and his office to address legitimate concerns regarding discriminatory price increases while preserving consumers’ access to discounts, coupons, rewards programs, and other cost-saving benefits. Unfortunately, those compromise proposals have not been incorporated into the legislation.<\/p>\n “At a time when Californians are struggling with some of the highest housing costs, energy prices, grocery bills and gas prices in the nation, the Legislature should be focused on helping consumers save money, not making it harder for businesses to offer discounts,” said Rachel Michelin, President and CEO of the California Retailers Association. “AB 2564 creates a false choice between privacy and affordability. Californians already enjoy the strongest privacy protections in America. What this bill threatens are the coupons, rewards programs and discounts that millions of California consumers rely on every day to make ends meet.”<\/p>\n California consumers are already protected by an extensive framework of privacy and consumer protection laws, including the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA), the California Privacy Rights Act (CPRA), the DELETE Act, robust enforcement by the California Privacy Protection Agency, California’s Unfair Competition Law, and longstanding prohibitions against deceptive pricing practices. AB 2564 does not fill a regulatory gap; it creates new restrictions that could discourage businesses from offering discounts and rewards programs altogether.<\/p>\n The stakes for California consumers are significant:<\/p>\n Nearly 8 in 10 consumers (79%) already participate in customer loyalty or rewards programs.[1]<\/p>\n More than 70% of Californians oppose efforts that would effectively eliminate loyalty programs and personalized coupons.[2]<\/p>\n Consumers increasingly rely on targeted discounts, digital coupons, rewards points, and promotional pricing to offset the nation’s highest housing, energy, transportation, and grocery costs.<\/p>\n At a time when policymakers across California are focused on affordability, AB 2564 moves in the opposite direction by creating legal uncertainty and compliance burdens that could force businesses to scale back or eliminate discount programs that benefit consumers.<\/p>\n “Every day, California families are looking for ways to save money at the grocery store, pharmacy, department store, home improvement store, and online,” Michelin said. “The practical effect of this bill is fewer discounts, fewer savings opportunities, and higher costs for consumers. That is the wrong policy outcome for California.”<\/p>\n CRA emphasized that it does not support discriminatory pricing practices and has repeatedly proposed amendments that focus specifically on preventing targeted price increases while preserving discounts and consumer savings opportunities. Those proposals would address legitimate concerns without putting loyalty and rewards programs at risk.<\/p>\n “As written, AB 2564 fails to strike the right balance,” Michelin added. “Consumers should not have to choose between privacy and savings. California can protect both. We remain ready and willing to work with the author and all stakeholders on a solution that safeguards privacy without taking away the discounts and rewards Californians have come to expect and depend upon.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Bill Jeopardizes Discounts and Rewards Programs...<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-81015","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-business","category-ca-local"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81015","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=81015"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81015\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":81016,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81015\/revisions\/81016"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=81015"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=81015"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=81015"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}