Senate Bill 561, which would have generated even greater compliance challenges and litigation risk for businesses, has been held in committee and placed on suspense. This development effectively prevents the bill from advancing for a vote and is a bit of CCPA good news for businesses. It also serves as a minor setback to consumer privacy interest groups and plaintiff-oriented trial lawyers, who were banking on even more lucrative individual consumer violation claims after January 1, 2020.
The original proposed amendment would have expanded the private cause of action to any violation of the CCPA, and eliminated the 30-day cure period for alleged violations. California Attorney General Xavier Becerra had earlier expressed his support of Senate Bill 561, reportedly in order to relieve the enforcement burden of the Attorney General's office (and despite the fact that the CCPA sets up a fund to finance enforcement activity by the Attorney General). The original proposed bill and its potential impact were discussed in an earlier post on this site.
Businesses should celebrate this development as a more reasoned and balanced approach to individual rights under the CCPA with the goal of appropriate and fair governmental enforcement. Organizations and businesses dealing with California residents should be on the lookout for the California Attorney General's enforcement rules announcement this Fall.
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