Recent Court Ruling Provides Roadmap for Dismissal of CIPA Claims, Lawyers Say
A late October federal court decision dismissing a case that claimed violations of the California Invasion of Privacy Act (CIPA) has provided “a clear roadmap” for dispatching litigation under the old wiretapping statute, Akin Gump lawyers said in a blog post Monday.
Sign up for a free preview to unlock the rest of this article
Privacy Daily provides accurate coverage of newsworthy developments in data protection legislation, regulation, litigation, and enforcement for privacy professionals responsible for ensuring effective organizational data privacy compliance.
In DellaSala v. Samba TV, the U.S. District Court for Northern California ruled that CIPA and the Comprehensive Computer Data Access and Fraud Act are “intentionally restricted to California residents and directed at conduct within the state.” The three plaintiffs who brought the case were residents of North Carolina and Oklahoma.
The order of Judge Jacqueline Scott Corley dismissed the case on jurisdictional grounds, “never reaching the merits” of the complaint’s claims, the lawyers noted. She ruled that to bring a claim in California as a nonresident of the state, it “must allege conduct in” California.
Though CIPA “has become one of the most litigated privacy laws across the country” recently, “some courts have expressed doubts about the ability of out-of-state residents to sue under” the statute, said the Akin lawyers: The decision in Samba TV provides guidelines for other courts to follow.
Still, the Akin Gump lawyers “fully expect that courts will continue grappling over when and how to apply this 60-year-old statute drafted and intended to prevent unauthorized wiretapping before the Internet age.”
The case also offered routes for dismissal on other grounds, such as Video Privacy Protection Act claims (see 2511060049).