Advertising Trades Urge California Attorney General to Delay CCPA

Less than 24 hours after the 14th annual international Data Privacy Day passed, five of the nation’s leading advertising and marketing trade associations urged California Attorney General Xavier Becerra today through a joint letter to delay his office’s enforcement of the California Consumer Protection Act. The 4A’s (American Association of Advertising Agencies), American Advertising Federation (AAF), Association of National Advertisers (ANA), Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB), and Network Advertising Initiative (NAI) requested a “reasonable” six-month postponement so that the thousands of California-operating businesses and brands subject to the CCPA can have more time to review and implement final regulations. The joint letter to Becerra was signed by: Dan Jaffe, group evp, government relations, ANA, Alison Pepper, svp, 4A's, Christopher Oswald, svp, government relations, ANA, David Grimaldi, evp, public policy, IAB, David LeDuc, vp, public policy, NAI and Clark Rector, evp, government affairs, AAF. Implemented on Jan. 1., the CCPA is sweeping privacy legislation that lets consumers ask companies what personal information they collect and also lets them opt out of having their personal information collected. Celine Guillou, a partner at Silicon Valley law firm Hopkins & Barley, said “full enforcement” by the Office of the Attorney General is not expected until July 1, 2020. Nonetheless, the five major ad trades that penned the joint letter are calling for the six-month deferral to "avoid consumer and business confusion with respect to the new rules," as they feel that the clock is working against them in their compliance efforts. "The 4A’s fully expects there to not only be further clarifications around existing uncertainties, but also that there will be entirely new obligations introduced," Pepper told Adweek. The letter further indicates that the "extraordinary complexity" of the law and the "wide range of open issues to be clarified from draft guidance" impedes the timeline for effective implementation prior to July 1. The first round of draft regulations that Becerra's office released back in December presented unprecedented requirements that were not in previous iterations of the CCPA, including new record-keeping obligations, notice requirements and verification rules. A new addition is described in the delay proposal: "the requirement for a business upon receipt of a consumer opt-out request, to 'notify all third parties to whom it has sold the personal information of the consumer within 90 days prior to the business’ receipt of the consumer’s request that the consumer has exercised their right to opt-out and instruct them not to further sell the information." The California Attorney General's office has yet to release the final regulations interpreting the law. Then, the office is obligated to provide public comment periods lasting for a minimum of 15 days. Rules aren't considered effective until they are submitted and reviewed by the Office of Administrative Law after the public comment period. The ad trades are concerned that draft rules could substantially change within five months before enforcement, and thus find the enforcement date of July 1 to leave an unreasonable amount of time for businesses to build new processes and adjust their systems around the CCPA. The letter concluded: "Consumer privacy is best served when businesses that leverage data do so in accordance with clear and concrete laws and regulations that present them with adequate time to adjust their practices to come into compliance with the new requirements." A request for response to the Attorney General's office was not immediately returned.