Industry Urges Emergency Delay in CCPA Enforcement

With the coronavirus response causing havoc across the business community, the Insights Association joined 33 other industry groups to implore California Attorney General Xavier Becerra to “forebear from enforcing the CCPA until January 2, 2021 so businesses are able to build processes that are in line with the final regulations before they may be subject to enforcement actions for allegedly violating the law’s terms.“

In a coalition letter sent on March 17, 2020, IA and our partners requested some temporary forbearance from the AG in his enforcement of the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA). Coming into compliance with the complex comprehensive privacy law by July 1, with regulations not even finalized yet, was already going to be a near-impossible task, but in a general state of emergency, the hurdles to compliance will be even more withering: “Many companies have instituted mandatory work-from-home measures to limit community spread of the virus, meaning that the individuals who are responsible for creating processes to comply with CCPA are not present in the office to undertake such tasks. Developing innovative business procedures to comply with brand-new legal requirements is a formidable undertaking on its own, but it is an especially tall order when there are no dedicated, on-site staff available to build and test necessary new systems and processes.“

The Insights Association and our allied business groups pointed out that we “fully support California’s efforts to provide consumers enhanced privacy protections, but the ever-evolving nature of the CCPA’s proposed rules, especially in light of the current global crisis, makes the current enforcement date of July 1, 2020 a problematic deadline for both businesses and consumers.“

While the law required the AG to not enforce before July 1, it did not require him to start enforcing by that date. That’s why we asked the AG to “delay enforcement of the CCPA until January 2, 2021. This short forbearance will allow businesses to absorb the shock to the system presented by the current health crisis and will give businesses the time they need to understand and effectively operationalize the rules helping ensure consumers have consistent access to the rights afforded under the new law.“

NewsJoint industry letter requesting delay in AG enforcing CCPA – March 17, 2020Government Affairs