Akin Gump Lawyers Pen Law360 Article Examining Divergent State Privacy Laws

Akin Gump litigation partners Seamus Duffy and Meredith Slawe and associate Julie Busta have written the article “Divergent State Privacy Laws Show Need For Federal Solution,” which was published by Law360. With the effective date of the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) less than six months away, the article describes the many other state laws that are coming online—each of which “will present its own operational challenges for businesses navigating the digital marketplace”—and warns of the consequences of failing to implement a uniform federal solution.

The authors look at some of the differing privacy legislation emerging from state capitals across the country. For example, they write that, while Nevada is set to become the first state “to provide consumers the right to opt out of the sale of their personal information,” New York aims to create “rights of access, portability and deletion of its own with deadlines for fulfilling data subject requests that differ from that of the CCPA.” In Maine, meanwhile, Internet service providers will be subjected “to a data privacy regime that would apply to no other businesses” in the state.

The article then notes that the CCPA itself includes a provision voiding the statute if it were to be preempted by federal law—something the U.S. Constitution would accomplish anyway, the authors add. Without any sort of action from Congress, however, they write that there will be a high price.

“We cannot chop up the Internet into 50 separate data privacy territories, each with special rules for data security, access, deletion and transparency,” the authors warn. Failure to implement national legislation “will plague the courts with difficult venue and choice of law problems as enterprising lawyers exploit the vagaries of these new statutes.” The overall costs of compliance, they add, will also soar “if companies are required to develop separate compliance plans for each state, without any indication that the costs will result in improved protections for consumers.          

To read the article in its entirety, please click here.