California Attorney Outlines CCPA Enforcement Priorities Prior to the January 1, 2020 Effective Date

With less than two weeks before the effective date of the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA), the State’s Attorney General Xavier Becerra outlined his office’s enforcement priorities of the nation’s first comprehensive consumer data protection law:

• Although the Attorney General is not expected to begin enforcement of the CCPA until July 1, 2020, he will monitor for potential violations in the first six months that involve sensitive and critical data of a large number of California residents. The Act does not expressly prohibit the Attorney General from brining an enforcement action after July 1 based on the pre-July 1 violation.

• The Attorney General promised aggressive, early, and decisive enforcement actions but will initially prioritize provisions that require companies to obtain parental consent to sell personal information of children under the age of 13 and opt-in consent of children between the ages of 13 and 16.

• The Attorney General promised to be “patient” with small businesses that are making a real effort to comply with the CCPA but indicated that ignorance of the regulatory obligations would not be an excuse.

The Attorney General also revealed that he has been in contact the legislators to discuss potential amendments to the CCPA to make its enforcement more effective.  The Attorney General is open to empowering the district attorneys and city attorneys with power to bring enforcement actions under the Act.

Finally, the Attorney General indicated that, following the conclusion of the public comment period in the first week of December, he does not expect to make major changes to the proposed CCPA Regulations.  This is an important disclosure as the lack of finalized regulations has created a great deal of compliance uncertainty as businesses are struggling to be ready for the January 1 effective date.  Although it remains unclear when the final regulations will be published, it is now more likely to be several months in advance of the July 1, 2020 enforcement deadline.

We will continue to follow the developments in the CCPA regulatory process and report them in this blog.

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