California’s Song-Beverly Credit Card Act

Understanding the trend

What is this trend?

The Song-Beverly Credit Card Act, California Civil Code § 1747.08, restricts merchants from requesting or recording personal identification information during a credit-card transaction when that information is not needed to complete the purchase. Current records show a concentrated wave of California filings and plaintiff-firm investigations focused on phone numbers, email addresses, ZIP codes, and other customer data collected at checkout.

What caused it

The current wave follows a repeatable retail practice: store personnel or online checkout flows ask for identifying information while processing a card purchase, then retain or use it for marketing, loyalty enrollment, receipts, or profiling. Recent matters cite the statute and the California Supreme Court’s Pineda decision as the foundation for per-transaction statutory exposure.

Practices driving the lawsuits

• Requesting and recording phone numbers, email addresses, ZIP codes, or addresses at in-store checkout
• Using transaction-linked personal information for marketing, targeted advertising, or customer profiling
• Conditioning completion of a card purchase or access to a receipt or loyalty benefit on nonessential information
• Collecting the same information during online card transactions where it is not needed for payment or delivery