California SB 1069 passed the state Assembly on August 18, 2026. If it becomes law, a qualifying manufacturer with a complete CARB application on file can sell, advertise, and install an emissions related part while the review is still running, instead of waiting 12 to 18 months for an Executive Order. Nothing has changed yet: the bill still needs a Senate concurrence vote and the governor's signature. But the catalog work it forces on you is the same either way, and most aftermarket stores have been putting it off.
Below: the two minute version. Everything under it is the detail, including the eligibility gate that decides whether your suppliers are even in scope.
What California SB 1069 actually does
Today, an add-on or modified part that touches a vehicle's emissions control system needs a CARB Executive Order before it can be legally advertised, sold, or installed in California. SEMA's research puts the current wait at 12 to 18 months, and sometimes as long as two years. Application fees run $500 for companies with under 100 employees and $1,000 for larger ones, but SEMA estimates the real per product cost lands between $1,600 and $3,200 once a filing gets broken into multiple applications.
SB 1069 adds Section 43019.4 to the Health and Safety Code and creates a conditional approval lane. A qualifying manufacturer that files a complete application, backed by emissions testing and technical documentation, can sell, advertise, and install the part while CARB finishes its review. The bill also puts CARB on a clock: 30 business days to determine whether an application is complete, extendable by 15 business days for each increment of 50 applications received in the same window. SEMA's summary of the framework adds a 60 day approve or deny window, 30 days for an applicant to cure deficiencies, and a 50 percent refund of application fees when CARB misses the deadlines.
What it does not do: it does not change a single emissions standard, and it does not limit CARB's authority to deny a non compliant product. This is a queue fix, not a rollback.
The eligibility gate nobody is talking about
Conditional approval is not open to every manufacturer. The bill text requires an applicant to already hold at least 10 Executive Orders issued before January 1, 2027, and at least one of those has to be in the same application category as the part being filed.
That is a track record gate, and it matters more to your catalog than the headline does. Established manufacturers clear it easily. A new brand, a small fabrication shop, or an overseas supplier that only recently started filing with CARB does not. If you carry both kinds of vendor, and almost every aftermarket store does, SB 1069 splits your catalog in two. Only you can tell which side a given SKU lands on, and only if your product data says who made it and what they hold.
Conditional does not mean permanent
A conditional approval expires two years from its effective date, unless the executive officer extends it or a real Executive Order supersedes it first. CARB can also suspend or revoke one. Read the remedy language twice: on withdrawal, revocation, or expiration of a conditional approval, the executive officer may require the manufacturer to implement a recall, corrective action, stop sale order, or other remedy.
A stop sale order on a SKU you are actively merchandising is an operational emergency, not a paperwork problem. If you cannot query your catalog for every conditionally approved part grouped by manufacturer, you will be doing that reconciliation by hand at the worst possible moment.
This is a merchant problem, not just a manufacturer problem
CARB does not only go after manufacturers. In October 2023 it announced settlements totaling more than $1 million with three companies for distributing and selling aftermarket performance parts that lacked the required exemption: Meyer Distributing at $564,250, Evasive Motorsports at $295,000, and Throtl at $175,000. CARB's own framing is that these parts typically require an exemption in order to be legally advertised, offered for sale, sold, installed, or used in California.
Advertised. Your product detail page is advertising. SEMA tells its members the EO number belongs on the product, on the packaging, and in advertising materials. That makes the Executive Order number a product data field, not a PDF sitting in a supplier folder somewhere.
Four fields to add to your Shopify catalog now
None of this depends on the bill passing. Every field below makes you more compliant today and ready on day one if the governor signs.
1. Executive Order number
Store it as a product metafield, not free text in the description. A CARB aftermarket parts EO number looks like D-193-140: the D marks it as an emissions related device, the middle number is the manufacturer's assigned ID, and the last number is the specific order for that part or product line. Surface it on the product page and in structured data so both shoppers and AI shopping agents can read it.
2. Use designation
An Executive Order is scoped. The use designation is what tells you which vehicles, model years, engine families, and installation conditions the approval actually covers. A part can be perfectly legal on one engine family and illegal on the next one down the list. Store it next to your fitment data, never as a replacement for it.
3. California shipping restriction
Any SKU with no EO number should not be shippable to a California address. Do it at checkout with a cart and checkout validation function, not with a shipping profile alone: a profile can hide a rate, but a validation function is what actually stops the order. Give the shopper a clear message instead of a silent failure, because a confusing block at checkout costs you the rest of the cart too.
4. Conditional status
If SB 1069 becomes law, a part is no longer either approved or not. There is a third state. Model it now so you are not retrofitting a field into a live catalog later.
namespace: compliance
carb_eo_number single_line_text_field "D-193-140"
carb_use_designation multi_line_text_field "2016-2021 Civic 1.5T, exc. Si"
carb_status single_line_text_field approved | conditional | none
carb_conditional_exp date "2028-01-01"
ca_shippable boolean true | false
carb_manufacturer_id single_line_text_field "193"
Six fields, one namespace. carb_status drives your merchandising badges, ca_shippable drives the checkout validation function, and carb_conditional_exp is what saves you when a conditional approval lapses and CARB starts asking questions.
One trap: an SC-E certificate is not a CARB Executive Order
On July 1, 2026 the EPA formally recognized SEMA's Certified-Emissions program, SC-E, as satisfying the documented reasonable basis requirement under its tampering policy. That is real, and it is useful: it covers the other 49 states, and testing performed for SC-E can be reused in a CARB filing. It is not a substitute for a California Executive Order.
Expect suppliers to start sending SC-E certificates and expect someone on your team to treat one as a green light. Write the rule down before that happens: only a D number flips the California flag on a SKU.
Where the bill stands right now
- Passed the California Senate unanimously on May 19, 2026
- Cleared the Assembly Transportation Committee unanimously in late June
- Cleared Assembly Appropriations on August 13, 2026
- Passed the Assembly floor unanimously on August 18, 2026
- Back in the Senate for a concurrence vote on the Assembly amendments
The Legislature has to pass bills by August 31, 2026. The governor then has until September 30 to sign or veto. A bill signed this fall takes effect January 1, 2027. One more timing detail worth knowing: the bill gives CARB until July 1, 2028 to revise its exemption procedures, so treat this as a phased rollout rather than a switch that flips on New Year's Day. Authored by Senator Tim Grayson with Senator Dave Cortese as coauthor, and sponsored by SEMA.
What to do in the next two weeks
- Export your catalog and tag every SKU that touches an emissions control system: intakes, exhaust and cat-back systems, catalytic converters, superchargers and turbo kits, tuners and flash devices, headers.
- For each of those, find the Executive Order number or confirm there isn't one. If your supplier cannot produce a D number, that is your answer.
- Create the compliance metafield definitions and backfill them. Start with your top 200 SKUs by revenue.
- Ship the checkout validation function that blocks California addresses on SKUs with no EO number, with a clear customer facing message.
- Ask your top vendors one question in writing: do you hold at least 10 CARB Executive Orders issued before January 1, 2027? Their answer tells you whether SB 1069 helps them at all.
- Decide your policy on conditionally approved parts before you have to. Sell them, hold them, or sell them with disclosure. Pick one.
Aftermarket catalogs are already the hardest data problem in ecommerce, and California keeps adding fields to it. We went through the same exercise with SB 1215 and the embedded battery recycling fee, and the merchants who had clean product data handled it in an afternoon. The same is true here, and the same structured data work pays off twice: it keeps you compliant, and it is exactly what AI search engines and shopping agents need to recommend your parts in the first place.
If you sell aftermarket parts on Shopify, we can get your catalog CARB ready before the bill is signed. Start with an Agentic Commerce Audit and we will map your compliance and fitment data in one pass.
Read the full transcript
California SB 1069 just passed the state Assembly. If you sell emissions related automotive parts, here is what the bill does, where it stands, and how to get your Shopify catalog ready.
Today, an aftermarket part that touches emissions needs a CARB Executive Order, and that approval runs 12 to 18 months. Under SB 1069, a manufacturer that files a complete application backed by emissions testing and technical documentation can sell, advertise, and install the part while CARB finishes its review. The bill is backed by SEMA, the Specialty Equipment Market Association, to cut the backlog on performance and specialty parts. It was authored by California Senator Tim Grayson.
SB 1069 passed the Assembly on August 18th. It still needs a Senate concurrence vote on the Assembly amendments and then the governor's signature. Nothing changes until that happens, so the time to prepare is now.
For Shopify merchants, the prep is product metadata. Store the Executive Order number as a metafield. It is an alphanumeric code that starts with the letter D. Add the use designation, which controls where and on what vehicles a part can legally be installed. Block California addresses at checkout for any SKU without an EO number, and flag the parts that would still be pending CARB review.
If you sell aftermarket parts on Shopify, Ambaum can get your catalog CARB ready before the bill is signed. Find us at ambaum.com.
