California Unfair Competition Law Statute of Limitations: Four Years Under B&P Code § 17208

What the statute says

Section 17208 states the period in a single sentence: any action to enforce a cause of action under the chapter must be commenced within four years after accrual. The section also provides that no cause of action barred under existing law on the effective date of the section is revived by its enactment.

The practical significance is that the four-year period is fixed to the UCL claim itself. A UCL claim built on a predicate with a shorter period — a one-year defamation-adjacent theory, a two-year statutory claim — is generally still governed by section 17208's four years, which is a principal reason the UCL is pleaded alongside shorter claims.

When the clock starts

The period runs from accrual of the cause of action. Whether the delayed-discovery rule applies to UCL claims has been the subject of substantial litigation and is not resolved uniformly across all contexts, so a practitioner should not assume discovery accrual is available.

Where the unlawful practice is ongoing, each act within the four-year window may support relief even though earlier instances fall outside it, which affects the scope of restitution rather than the viability of the claim.

Key exceptions and tolling

• Predicate period does not control.The four-year UCL period generally applies even where the borrowed predicate violation carries a shorter limitations period of its own.
• Discovery accrual is unsettled.Application of the delayed-discovery rule to UCL claims is not uniformly resolved; do not assume it is available without checking current authority for the specific context.
• No revival.Section 17208 expressly does not revive any cause of action already barred under existing law when the section took effect.
• Ongoing practices.For a continuing unlawful practice, acts falling within the four-year window can support relief while earlier instances are excluded, limiting the restitution period rather than the claim.
• Related consumer statutes differ.The Consumers Legal Remedies Act and false advertising provisions carry their own periods and should be calendared separately from the UCL count.

Frequently asked