The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) announced a joint state-and-federal initiative, “Operation Call It Quits,” which targets illegal telemarketing practices that violate the FTC’s Telemarketing Sales Rule (TSR). The TSR, which applies to interstate telephonic marketing communications intended to “induce the purchase of goods or services or a charitable contribution,” makes it illegal to engage in “abusive” acts and practices like failing to transmit caller identification information, calling telephone numbers listed on the National Do Not…

The Federal Trade Commission’s (FTC) recently announced settlement with background check provider SecurTest, Inc. shows the agency remains vigilant regarding businesses’ claims that they comply with the EU-U.S. Privacy Shield Framework (Privacy Shield). Privacy Shield provides U.S. businesses with a legally recognized mechanism for receiving personal data in the United States from the EU. In its complaint against SecurTest, the FTC alleges that for several months SecurTest falsely claimed on its website that it complied…

With barely half a year until the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) takes effect in January 2020, the landmark privacy law is in a state of flux. The already-amended landmark law is likely to face further rounds of revision, and the California Attorney General is required to hammer out many key compliance requirements through an administrative rulemaking. Gerry Stegmaier and Mark Quist recently co-authored an article for the Washington Legal Foundation examining the key issues…

Last week, the California Assembly’s Committee on Privacy and Consumer Protection, which exercises jurisdiction over privacy and personal information protection matters, approved several amendment bills intended to clarify and narrow the scope of the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA or the Act). In January 2020, the CCPA will impose landmark burdens and obligations on businesses that in many respects go beyond those required by the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). Businesses nationwide will be…

On February 26, 2019, the Federal Trade Commission’s (FTC) Bureau of Competition announced a new Technology Task Force, which will monitor anticompetitive conduct in U.S. technology markets “to ensure consumers benefit from free and fair competition.” With the consumer protection agency already a chief arbiter of privacy enforcement in the tech sector, the new task force increases the likelihood that the continued convergence between competition and consumer protection policy, which began in earnest at…

BREAKING: California Attorney General Xavier Becerra (AG) announced a proposed series of amendments to the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) that would: Expand consumers’ private right of action to include all alleged violations of their rights under the CCPA; Eliminate businesses’ 30-day opportunity to “cure” alleged violations prior to being subject to civil enforcement by the AG (cure provision); and Eliminate businesses’ right to ask the AG’s opinion on how to comply with the CCPA.…