Overview
Last week, we sent out an advisory summarizing numerous bills currently pending in the California legislature that would amend the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA). While much of the proposed legislation was backed by the retail industry, one of the bills—Senate Bill 561—would have been a nightmare for retailers if passed. Today, the Senate Appropriations Committee decided to hold SB 561 in committee, which means the bill is dead for the year. This should be a great relief for retailers, since SB 561 would have dramatically expanded the CCPA's private right of action to cover any violations of the Act, and not just certain data breaches.
California Attorney General Xavier Becerra and California State Senator Hannah-Beth Jackson introduced Senate Bill 561 on February 25, 2019. The bill, if passed, would have expanded the CCPA's private right of action to allow for suits concerning any violation of the law, as opposed to the more limited private right of action that currently applies only to certain data breaches. The proposed amendment would have also removed a provision of the CCPA that allows businesses and third parties to seek individualized guidance from the Attorney General on how to comply with the Act. Instead, under SB 561, the Attorney General would only be authorized, in his discretion, to publish materials providing general guidance on CCPA compliance. SB 561 also would have removed the "right to cure" provision that currently allows businesses 30 days to cure violations in actions brought by the Attorney General. Thus, not only would SB 561 have eliminated the ability for companies to get specific guidance from the AG as to what is widely considered a very confusing and ambiguous statute, but businesses that failed to correctly interpret the law would not have had the opportunity to cure potential violations before facing steep penalties. (See our article in CPO Magazine for more information about SB 561.)
On April 29, 2019, SB 561 was heard in the California Senate Appropriations Committee, the Senate Committee responsible for overseeing the state's budget. The hearing involved no testimony; instead, SB 561 was placed in the Committee's Suspense File by a unanimous vote of 6-0. The Suspense File allows the Committee to hold bills with a significant fiscal impact so they can be evaluated once Committee members have a better sense of available revenue closer to the end of the term. Today, the Committee decided not to let the bill out of the Suspense File, effectively killing the bill for the next year.