Unruh Civil Rights Act
California's Unruh Civil Rights Act (Civil Code §§ 51-51.3) prohibits business establishments from discriminating against disabled persons and is the state-law vehicle most often paired with ADA Title III claims in California ecommerce-accessibility cases.
Detailed explanation
The Unruh Act provides for $4,000 statutory damages per violation, plus attorneys' fees, plus injunctive relief. California courts have held that an inaccessible website visit by a disabled person can constitute a separate Unruh violation per visit.
Plaintiffs in California routinely bundle Unruh claims with ADA Title III claims to maximize recoverable damages. The bundling is what makes California the highest-volume state in US ADA-website-litigation — the federal claim provides the substantive duty, the state claim provides the statutory-damages multiplier.
How this applies to Shopify stores
Any Shopify store accepting orders from California consumers is potentially subject to Unruh. The exposure is per-visit, so a single lawsuit can claim damages for multiple alleged visits to an inaccessible site.
Primary source: leginfo.legislature.ca.gov