Lawsuits In the Wild West

The California Consumer Privacy Act allows the state’s residents to restrict companies’ ability to sell their personal information, but it is notoriously ambiguous, so people have gone to the courts for clarity. Many of the suits filed since the law went into effect on Jan. 1 allege that companies have failed to allow opt-outs from sale of personal information or failed to disclose that the companies share people’s personal information with third parties. The California attorney general’s office has sent dozens of notices to companies demanding that they fix problems leading to noncompliance with the law. The notices give companies 30 days to make changes to comply with the law. The notices are not publicly available, and the number sent is confidential. In some cases, the lawsuits attempt to sidestep the CCPA’s private right of action limits by alleging companies have violated other laws, such as the state’s Unfair Competition Law. Some suits allege, for instance, that companies have made untrue statements if they claim they do not sell personal information when they actually pass it along to third-parties.