Leading Advertising and Marketing Trade Associations Ask to Delay Enforcement of the California Consumer Privacy Act

In a January 29, 2020 letter to the California Attorney General Xavier Becerra,  the leading U.S. advertising and marketing trade associations (Association of National Advertisers, Network Advertising Initiative, American Association of Advertising Agencies, Interactive Advertising Bureau, and American Advertising Association) urged the Attorney General to delay enforcement of the California Consumer Privacy Act.

The CCPA provides that the Attorney General shall not begin enforcement of the law until six months after the publication of the final promulgated Regulations or July 1, 2020, whichever is sooner.  The Attorney General must also issue the final Regulations on or before July 1.  See Cal. Civ. Code § 1798.185.   The Regulations are intended to operationalize the CCPA and provide practical guidance to consumers and businesses subject to the law on a number of issues, including the details on giving notices to consumers, the content of privacy policies, handling of consumer requests to access and delete and to opt out of sale of personal information, verification of consumer identity, training and record-keeping requirements, and non-discrimination practices.

The Attorney General published the first draft of the CCPA Regulations on October 10, 2019.  Following the conclusion of the public comment period in early December, the Attorney General indicated that he does not expect to make major changes to the original proposal. Nevertheless, the Regulations remain unfinalized with less than six months to go before the effective enforcement date of July 1.

The trade associations expressed concern that the current timeline would not provide businesses with sufficient time to effectively implement the final Regulations prior to the effective date and asked the Attorney General to postpone enforcement until at least six months from the date of finalization of the Regulations.

The ad tech industry’s concerns are compounded by the fact that the extent and scope of the CCPA’s application to the industry remain uncertain.  The Interactive Advertising Bureau recently released a CCPA Compliance Framework for Publishers & Technology Companies in an effort to bring some clarity to the industry’s compliance efforts.

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