California Law Points of Interest Summer 2019 Page 7 Points of Interest Summer 2019 Page 7 continued on page 8 s demonstrated by recent issues of The Orange CountyLawyerandotherlegalpublications,thetalk of the entire state – indeed the entire nation – is the California Consumer Privacy Act (the “Act” or the“CCPA”). AllthisalmostayearbeforetheCCPA officially goes into effect (more on that later). A complete description of the Act’s requirements, including the rights afforded to consumers, is included in Michael Gregg’s article entitled California’sConsumerPrivacyActof2018:WhyIts AmbiguitiesMayLeaveBusinessesinaQuandary intheOctober2018issueofTheOrangeCounty Lawyer magazine. The purpose of this article is to highlight some of the ambiguities and problems with the Act that will face businesses as they prepare for the CCPA to go into effect next year that have not received much, if any, treatment thus far. There is hope that some or all of these issues will be addressed in the current Legislative session, or through interpretive guidance from the California Attorney General. If they are not, however, these issues will fall to attorneys to chart the best course they can through an Act thrown together in haste, passed in a matter of weeks, and signed by the Governor in record time, all while the compliance clock continues its march toward January 1, 2020. Will The Attorney General Provide Guidance Soon? It is widely expected that the CCPA will be further amended this Legislative session. However, it is far from clear how those amendments will ultimately shake out. Lobbyists on both sides of the debate are hard at work advocating for changes to the Act, and privacy advocates have been stronglyadvocatingthatanyamendments to the CCPA strengthen its privacy protections by, for example, eliminating completely the right of businesses to compensate consumers for refraining This article first appeared in Orange County Lawyer Magazine, April 2019, Volume 61, Number 4, Page 28. The views expressed herein are those of the author. They do not necessarily represent the views of Orange County Lawyer Magazine, the Orange County Bar Association, the Orange County Bar Association Charitable Fund, or their staffs, contributors, or advertisers. All legal and other issues must be independently researched.