CPPA Wins Court of Appeal Decision Against the California Chamber of Commerce

SACRAMENTO - In a significant win for Californians' privacy rights, California's Third District Court of Appeal has sided with the California Privacy Protection Agency and California Attorney General Rob Bonta in the case of California Privacy Protection Agency v. Superior Court (California Chamber of Commerce).

The court held that the Agency’s authority to enforce its amended regulations should have been effective on July 1, 2023. Today’s decision restores this authority and overturns a lower court decision.

The court underscored the importance of the voters’ intent. “The text of Proposition 24 makes clear that, in approving the initiative measure, the voters intended to strengthen and protect consumers’ privacy rights regarding the collection and use (including sale) of their personal information."

In June 2023, a lower court ordered the Agency to stay the enforcement of new and amended regulations that took effect on March 29, 2023, for one year. The order also applied the one-year enforcement stay to proposed regulations still in development by the Agency. The push to delay enforcement of Californians’ privacy rights was brought by the California Chamber of Commerce.

“We are pleased with the decision. This ruling ensures all aspects of the regulations adopted by the California Privacy Protection Agency last year are again enforceable, just as the voters intended when they enacted Proposition 24,” said Ashkan Soltani, Executive Director of the California Privacy Protection Agency.

The Agency has been vigorously enforcing the statutory rights approved by voters in November 2020 with the passage of Proposition 24, the California Privacy Rights Act of 2020 (CPRA). However, some of the new and amended regulations implementing the CPRA, which largely define and clarify how businesses must honor those rights, were previously deemed unenforceable by the lower court until today’s decision.

“The California voters didn’t intend for businesses to pick and choose which privacy rights to honor. We are pleased that the court has restored our full enforcement authority, and our enforcement team stands ready to take it from here,” said Michael Macko, Deputy Director of Enforcement for the California Privacy Protection Agency. “This decision should serve as an important reminder to the regulated community: now would be a good time to review your privacy practices to ensure full compliance with all of our regulations.”

ABOUT US

The California Privacy Protection Agency is committed to promoting the education and awareness of consumers’ privacy rights and businesses’ responsibilities under the California Consumer Privacy Act. Individuals can visit privacy.ca.gov to access helpful and up-to-date information on how to exercise their rights and protect their personal information. In addition, the Agency’s website provides important information about CPPA board meetings, announcements, and the rulemaking process.