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ColoradoHB26-14262026 Regular SessionHouseWALLET

Department of Law Legislative Report

Sponsored By: Dylan Roberts (Democratic), Sean Camacho (Democratic), Yara Zokaie (Democratic)

Signed by Governor

Crimes, Corrections, & Enforcement

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Bill Overview

Analyzed Economic Effects

25 provisions identified: 15 benefits, 7 costs, 3 mixed.

Stronger protection against biased credit decisions

Covered credit providers cannot deny regulated consumer credit or impose stricter terms because of protected traits. These include disability, race, creed, religion, color, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, marital status, national origin, and ancestry. Discrimination no longer has to be the only reason for the decision. Sellers, lessors, and lenders are exempt when their prior-calendar-year total original unpaid consumer credit balances were below $1 million.

Broader tools to fight consumer fraud

The Attorney General and district attorneys can investigate and stop deceptive trade practices across the consumer-protection article. Their tools include subpoenas, hearings, court orders to stop conduct, and agreements to end violations. Investigations require reasonable cause; written information requests can reach people in Colorado or elsewhere, including witnesses not accused of wrongdoing. District attorneys remain subject to territorial limits, with exceptions tied to local transactions, business locations, or residences. Licensing agencies can make department-head-approved agreements to refer complaints and share information with the Attorney General while addressing confidentiality.

Breach notices must include protective steps

Covered organizations must give extra instructions when an investigation finds specified personal information was misused or is reasonably likely to be misused. They must direct affected people to change passwords and security questions or take other appropriate protective steps. Notice is due without unreasonable delay, within 30 days after determining a breach occurred. Timing remains subject to legitimate law-enforcement needs, investigating the breach, and restoring the data system’s integrity.

Cancellation rights for affected gym members

A member or their estate can cancel when a health club permanently closes. Cancellation also applies after a sale substantially changes services, facilities, or benefits so they no longer match the contract. Membership fees pause during the club’s 30-day chance to fix the problem.

Fraud protections back age-restricted sales rules

Selling or offering an age-restricted product to someone below the required age is an unfair or deceptive trade practice. The amended wording no longer names electronic smoking devices separately.

Product safety violations gain fraud enforcement

Beginning August 12, 2026, covered bicycle, electric scooter, and personal mobility device equipment violations count as unfair or deceptive trade practices. Covered manufacturer violations involving chemicals in hair relaxers and hair pieces also count as deceptive trade practices. The hair-product rule applies only if House Bill 26-1135 becomes law, starting on the later effective date of the two acts. For both changes, a filed referendum petition requires voter approval before the relevant part takes effect.

Required qualifications backed by fraud protections

Doing business or practicing a profession in Colorado without legally required qualifications is an unfair or deceptive trade practice. This covers qualifications required by state law or the Colorado Constitution. Consumers gain a basis for enforcement under the state’s consumer-protection law.

Restrictions extend to colonic irrigation services

Restrictions on enemas by certain unlicensed alternative health practitioners now also cover colonic irrigation. Practitioners who lack state licensing, certification, or registration must meet the applicable service conditions. These include telling clients they are not licensed physicians.

Clearer broker fees and contract warnings

Brokers forming transaction-broker or single-agency relationships must complete a written agreement before beginning the covered brokerage work. It must prominently state the amount or rate of their pay. If a transaction party requires its own purchase contract, the consumer’s broker must advise seeking a licensed attorney’s advice. Consumers do not have to hire one. Broker agreements must also clearly disclose any one-sided right for the broker to cancel.

Courts can enforce rights investigation subpoenas

The Attorney General can seek a court order when a government authority or its representatives disobey an investigative subpoena. This applies to investigations of patterns or practices that deprive people of protected rights. The request and court finding must establish reasonable grounds for an order. Orders can require attendance, documents, or other compliance.

New path to request rule reviews

Beginning January 1, 2027, the Attorney General must accept and review petitions to review rules or start rulemaking. This applies only to matters within the Attorney General’s or Department of Law’s rulemaking authority. By January 1, 2028, the Attorney General must adopt rules for responses, opinion letters, interpretive guidance, and the process’s operation. The rules must include a defense for good-faith reliance on guidance for conduct that might otherwise violate the consumer-law title. A petition does not guarantee a rule change.

Hospital deal reviews consider local access

Covered hospital deals avoid further Attorney General review only when they do not materially change charitable purposes, missions, or services. They must also avoid moving a material amount of assets outside Colorado in a way that ends the Attorney General’s jurisdiction. In judging material changes, the Attorney General considers reduced availability and access to care in communities served.

New fund supports Medicaid fraud cases

Beginning August 12, 2026, the law creates the False Medicaid Claims Recovery Fund for fraud-unit staff and ongoing case costs. It receives recovered costs and fees, appropriations, and transfers; earnings stay in the fund and year-end balances carry forward. Fraud recoveries first repay defrauded governments; 20% of the remaining distribution enters the fund, with the rest going to the General Fund. The 20% deposit is subject to applicable federal guidance, and spending requires yearly legislative approval. The fund is exempt from cash-fund limits on uncommitted reserves. A filed referendum petition requires voter approval before the fund-creation and recovery-distribution provisions take effect.

Added funding source for park water

The Mobile Home Park Water Quality Fund gains a revenue source from money credited under the consumer-protection law. The provision sets no dollar amount and creates no direct payment to park residents.

Internet providers gain unlawful email remedies

Internet access providers can sue over unlawful commercial email sent, or attempted, through their networks or facilities. A winning provider can recover actual damages and $1,000 per violating message. Statutory damages are capped at $10 million against one defendant for one transaction or occurrence. Attorney fees and costs require a showing of a violation, even without financial injury. The law also provides specified good-faith immunity and does not require providers to carry or deliver email.

Alternative care disclosures cover fewer providers

The first-contact written disclosure duty for alternative health care now applies to individuals, not non-individual providers. It covers individuals who lack state health-professional credentials and professional-board or Division of Professions and Occupations oversight. They must also advertise or charge for health-care services.

Credential claim protections narrow and expire

Specified deceptive-claim rules now cover only individuals making claims as part of their business, vocation, or occupation. The rules concern academic degrees, dietitian or optician status, sign-language interpreting, and firearms instruction. This narrows who is covered. These rules and the section’s title or degree requirements are scheduled to end on September 1, 2034.

Debtors must promptly list creditor claims

Someone making a general assignment of assets for creditors must provide a sworn inventory within four days after the assignment. It must include estimated property values and a creditor list. The list must show names, claim amounts, and known residences and mailing addresses. This duty applies to the assignment process, not to households generally.

Limits on guests’ lost property claims

Hotels and covered public establishments have property-loss limits, including $5,000 for property in custody and $200 for room property. A written agreement can raise those limits; declared values and custody rules also affect recovery. Property kept free after a stay has a $50 limit. Safe-deposit protections require a suitable receptacle and posted notice, and the limits do not shield negligence. Places renting overnight accommodations month-to-month or longer are excluded from the public-establishment definition.

Some consumer fraud claims get narrower

A false claim about the standard, quality, or grade of goods, food, services, or property requires knowledge. The seller must know, or reasonably should know, that the claim is wrong. The law also removes several listed statutory violations, including telemarketing and radon-testing references, from one unfair-trade-practice section. The referenced laws remain in effect.

Uncooperative prosecution starters can owe costs

A person or business that starts or causes a prosecution under the specified lodging law must cooperate fully. Without reasonable cause for failing to cooperate, a court can make them pay the county’s prosecution costs. Costs can include a reasonable amount for the prosecutor’s time, whether or not restitution is sought or received. The prosecutor must request judgment, and the person or business must get notice and a chance to be heard.

Medicaid fraud violators pay case costs

Beginning August 12, 2026, Medicaid False Claims Act violators owe the full reasonable expenses of covered civil recovery cases. These include investigation and litigation costs, attorney fees, court costs, witness fees, and deposition costs. Recovered costs and fees go to the False Medicaid Claims Recovery Fund. A filed referendum petition requires voter approval before the relevant part takes effect.

State litigation gains flexibility, loses openness

The Department of Law can buy outside legal services and litigation-related support without following specified state procurement rules. The Attorney General or a designee can also request private Joint Budget Committee discussions about current or potential litigation’s budget effects. The committee can announce these sessions without naming a case or bill. Documents prepared under this process are excluded from public records under the Colorado Open Records Act.

Debt advice council starts, councils expire

The Department of Law has a new three-member Advisory Council for Debt Collection. Attorney General appointees represent debt collectors, consumer advocates focused on debt collection or lending, and the public. The council meets at least twice yearly and can address issues assigned by the Attorney General. Its authorization ends September 1, 2032, along with the consumer-protection, privacy, and consumer-credit advisory councils’ authorizations. These scheduled endings do not themselves change household debts, credit terms, or consumer rights.

Medical debt interest guidance gets deadline

The designated state administrator must clarify how the statutory interest rule applies to consumer credit transactions for medical debt. Rules or guidance are due by December 31, 2026. This requirement does not itself set a new interest rate or payment amount.

Sponsors & Cosponsors

Sponsors

  • Dylan Roberts

    Democratic • Senate

  • Sean Camacho

    Democratic • House

  • Yara Zokaie

    Democratic • House

Cosponsors

  • Chad Clifford

    Democratic • House

  • Jennifer Bacon

    Democratic • House

  • Julie McCluskie

    Democratic • House

  • Mandy Lindsay

    Democratic • House

  • James Coleman

    Democratic • Senate

  • Katie Wallace

    Democratic • Senate

Roll Call Votes

All Roll Calls

Yes: 335 • No: 72

Senate vote • 5/13/2026

Third reading: Amend (l.014)

Yes: 33 • No: 2

House vote • 5/13/2026

Senate amendments: Repass

Yes: 46 • No: 19

House vote • 5/13/2026

Senate amendments: Concur

Yes: 48 • No: 17

Senate vote • 5/13/2026

Third reading: Bill

Yes: 25 • No: 10

Senate vote • 5/11/2026

Refer House Bill 26-1426 to the Committee of the Whole.

Yes: 5 • No: 2

House vote • 5/9/2026

Third reading: Bill

Yes: 45 • No: 18

House vote • 5/9/2026

Third reading: Amd (l.011)

Yes: 63 • No: 0

House vote • 5/9/2026

Third reading: Perm

Yes: 62 • No: 1

House vote • 5/5/2026

Refer House Bill 26-1426, as amended, to the Committee of the Whole.

Yes: 8 • No: 3

Actions Timeline

  1. Governor Signed

    6/2/2026House

  2. Signed by the Speaker of the House

    5/28/2026House

  3. Signed by the President of the Senate

    5/28/2026Senate

  4. Sent to the Governor

    5/28/2026House

  5. Senate Third Reading Passed with Amendments - Floor

    5/13/2026Senate

  6. House Considered Senate Amendments - Result was to Concur - Repass

    5/13/2026House

  7. Senate Third Reading Laid Over Daily - No Amendments

    5/12/2026Senate

  8. Introduced In Senate - Assigned to Judiciary

    5/11/2026Senate

  9. Senate Committee on Judiciary Refer Unamended to Senate Committee of the Whole

    5/11/2026Senate

  10. Senate Second Reading Special Order - Passed - No Amendments

    5/11/2026Senate

  11. House Third Reading Passed with Amendments - Floor

    5/9/2026House

  12. House Third Reading Laid Over Daily - No Amendments

    5/8/2026House

  13. House Second Reading Special Order - Passed with Amendments - Committee, Floor

    5/7/2026House

  14. House Committee on Judiciary Refer Amended to House Committee of the Whole

    5/5/2026House

  15. Introduced In House - Assigned to Judiciary

    4/28/2026House

Bill Text

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