May 13, 2026|Client Alerts
What Happened, Why It Matters, and What Companies Should Do Before July 1
By Michael Kilgarriff, Melissa Richards, and Catherine Warren
Governor Gavin Newsom has appointed Rohit Chopra—former CFPB Director (2021–2025) and FTC Commissioner (2018–2021)—to lead California’s new Business and Consumer Services Agency (“BCSA”), a cabinet-level agency launching July 1, 2026. The appointment requires state Senate confirmation.
Why This Matters
The agency is broad. BCSA will sit above the Department of Financial Protection and Innovation (“DFPI”), Department of Consumer Affairs (“DCA”), Department of Real Estate, Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control, Department of Cannabis Control, California Horse Racing Board, and related appeals bodies. This is not a financial services appointment. It is an appointment over every major consumer- and business-facing regulatory department in the state.
The leader is consequential. Across both the FTC and the CFPB, Chopra built a record focused on how consumer- and small business-facing practices actually operate—not just whether companies made required disclosures or satisfied technical rules. His CFPB recovered nearly $10 billion in refunds and penalties, expanded fair lending oversight into small business credit, finalized a repeat-offender registry focused on management accountability, and interpreted the abusiveness standard to reach any practice that obscures information or exploits power asymmetries. He arrives in Sacramento with 7 months of post-CFPB work coordinating state enforcement strategy through the Democratic Attorneys General Association.
The timing is deliberate. Federal consumer protection enforcement has substantially receded. Governor Newsom explicitly framed the appointment as a response, stating that California needs “strong and fearless leaders to keep protecting Californians.” For regulated companies, less federal scrutiny paired with more state scrutiny changes the compliance allocation calculus.
What Companies Should Do Now
Companies with meaningful California operations should ask one practical question before July 1: if a California regulator asked about this practice tomorrow, could we explain how it works, why it is lawful, how consumers and small businesses experience it, and how problems are corrected?
Priority review areas include:
- Fee disclosures, recurring charges, add-on products, and cancellation flows
- Advertising, pricing, and savings claims
- Consumer and small business complaint intake, escalation, remediation, and root-cause analysis
- Servicing, collections, refunds, disputes, and hardship practices
- Data use, automated decisioning, and AI-enabled tools
- Small business lending and commercial financing disclosures
- Prior regulatory orders and full enforcement history
- Licensing obligations and vendor oversight
- CCFPL abusiveness exposure
- Internal escalation processes for issues that may implicate more than one California regulator
The companies best positioned for this environment will be those that can explain not only what their policies say, but how their practices operate in real time.
For a detailed analysis of Chopra’s FTC and CFPB record, California’s aligned regulatory trajectory, BCSA’s cross-agency structure, and a full discussion of each review area, read our full analysis: From the CFPB to California: What Chopra’s Appointment to Lead BCSA Means for Regulated Industries.
Buchalter Can Help
Buchalter’s State Attorneys General, White Collar and Investigations, and California regulatory teams represent companies in government investigations, regulatory inquiries, enforcement actions, and related litigation—including matters where a single set of facts draws scrutiny from multiple agencies simultaneously. If you have questions about how BCSA may affect your California operations, please contact the authors.
This communication is not intended to create or constitute, nor does it create or constitute, an attorney-client or any other legal relationship. No statement in this communication constitutes legal advice nor should any communication herein be construed, relied upon, or interpreted as legal advice. This communication is for general information purposes only regarding recent legal developments of interest, and is not a substitute for legal counsel on any subject matter. No reader should act or refrain from acting on the basis of any information included herein without seeking appropriate legal advice on the particular facts and circumstances affecting that reader. For more information, visit www.buchalter.com.
