Status Of Proposed CCPA-Like State Privacy Legislation As Of May 3, 2021 – JDSUPRA
To date, state lawmakers have introduced bills in 26 states. Multiple bills were introduced in Alaska, Connecticut, Florida, Illinois, Minnesota, New York, Massachusetts, and Washington. One state (Virginia) has passed legislation whereas the bills in ten states (Arizona, Florida, Kentucky, Maryland, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Mississippi, Utah, Washington, and West Virginia) have failed.
Keypoint: This week Florida came close to passing a bill before it died on the final day of the legislative session; committees in Colorado and Alaska scheduled hearings on their bills for May 5; and the Connecticut bill was referred to the Senate Committee on Judiciary.
Below is our tenth weekly update on the status of proposed CCPA-like privacy legislation. Before we get to our update, we wanted to provide two reminders.
First, we have been regularly updating our 2021 State Privacy Law Tracker to keep pace with the latest developments. We encourage you to bookmark the page for easy reference.
What’s New
After a tumultuous two weeks, Florida’s legislature ultimately failed to pass privacy legislation before it closed on April 30. On April 21, the Florida House of Representatives passed HB 969 by a vote of 118 to 1. On April 29, the Florida Senate passed a different version of the bill by a vote of 29-11 and sent the bill back to the House. On April 30, the House declined to consider the bill and it died. According to numerous reports, the primary disagreement was over whether the bill should include a private right of action.
In the span of two weeks, bills have failed in both a blue state (Washington) and red state (Florida) on the same issue – a private right of action (and, perhaps more generally, how the law should be enforced, including whether there should be a right to cure). Without solving this issue (such as through the creation of a data protection authority as will happen in California), it remains to be seen whether Washington and Florida will have any better chance of passing legislation next year.
In Colorado, the Colorado Privacy Act is set for a hearing on May 5 in the Senate Business, Labor & Technology Committee. Senator Rodriguez, who co-sponsored the bill, is the chair of the Committee. As we previously reported, Colorado’s legislative calendar states that the deadline for bills to pass out of the Senate was April 7. Nonetheless, it appears that lawmakers are treating that deadline as optional and proceeding with a hearing. The Colorado legislature adjourns on June 12.
