Virginia · Senate Bill · 2024 Regular Session
SB164
Virginia Senate Bill No. 164 — Virginia Consumer Protection Act; prohibited practices; artificial intelligence disclosure

Status ● Enacted Effective Apr 13, 2026 Passage Likelihood N/A

WHAT THIS BILL REGULATES · 1 REQUIREMENT TYPE

How Is This Bill Enforced

Enforcement Authority
Enforced by the Virginia Attorney General and local Commonwealth's Attorneys under the Virginia Consumer Protection Act (§ 59.1-196 et seq.). The VCPA provides a private right of action for consumers who suffer loss as a result of a violation. Enforcement may be agency-initiated or complaint-driven.
Private Right of Action
private right of action for consumers who suffer loss as a result of a violation.
Penalties
Under the existing VCPA framework (§ 59.1-204), a consumer may recover actual damages or $500 (whichever is greater) for willful violations, and the court may award reasonable attorney's fees and costs. Injunctive relief is available to the Attorney General. Civil penalties up to $2,500 per willful violation may be assessed in enforcement actions brought by the AG.

What This Bill Requires

Verbatim statutory text on the left; plain-language analysis and a per-section checklist on the right. Numbered markers cross-link to the matching checklist row.

Statutory Text
Analysis & Obligations
Va. Code § 59.1-200(A)(79)
Prohibited practice: failure to disclose AI use in depictions of actual persons
Publisher

(A)(79) 1 Failing to disclose the use of artificial intelligence technology in the creation of any item that includes a videographic or still image intending to depict an actual person or an audio or audio-visual recording intending to depict the voice of an actual person where such creator disseminates or sells such item.

This provision adds a new enumerated prohibited practice to the Virginia Consumer Protection Act's existing list of unlawful supplier conduct. The new subdivision 79 targets a narrow scenario: when a supplier uses artificial intelligence technology to create content — specifically, a videographic or still image intending to depict an actual person, or an audio or audio-visual recording intending to depict the voice of an actual person — and then disseminates or sells that content, the supplier must disclose the use of AI in its creation. Failure to disclose constitutes a VCPA violation.

The obligation is triggered only when the AI-generated content is both (1) intended to depict a real person or their voice and (2) disseminated or sold. The bill does not prescribe the form, timing, or placement of the required disclosure, leaving those details to general VCPA reasonableness standards. Because the obligation is embedded in the existing VCPA prohibited-practices list, it inherits the full VCPA enforcement apparatus — AG enforcement, private right of action, and existing remedies — without creating any new enforcement mechanism.

Compliance actions 1 item
1
Suppliers must disclose the use of artificial intelligence technology in the creation of any videographic or still image intending to depict an actual person, or any audio or audio-visual recording intending to depict the voice of an actual person, when the supplier disseminates or sells the item.
T-02.1
Va. Code § 59.1-200(B)
Savings clause: contract enforceability preserved

(B) Nothing in this section shall be construed to invalidate or make unenforceable any contract or lease solely by reason of the failure of such contract or lease to comply with any other law of the Commonwealth or any federal statute or regulation, to the extent such other law, statute, or regulation provides that a violation of such law, statute, or regulation shall not invalidate or make unenforceable such contract or lease.

This subsection is an existing VCPA provision reenacted without change. It preserves the enforceability of contracts and leases that may violate other Commonwealth or federal laws, clarifying that noncompliance with those other laws does not, by itself, render a contract void under the VCPA.

Passage Likelihood

Enacted
Status Enacted

Legislative History

2024-01-07 Prefiled and ordered printed; offered 01/10/24 24103621D
2024-01-07 Referred to Committee on General Laws and Technology
2024-02-07 Continued to 2025 in General Laws and Technology (15-Y 0-N)

Entry Last Reviewed

2026-05-20
AI generated