George Mason University Antonin Scalia Law School

The Future of Data Breach Litigation


Event Details

  • Date:
  • Venue: Rayburn House Office Building, Room 2237
  • Division: Civil Justice Academy

Data breaches have become commonplace for consumers. The Equifax breach alone affected over 145 million Americans. Some have questioned whether companies have done enough to protect private information, while businesses point to the costs and challenges of instituting new protections.

With no uniform federal policy in place, some states have begun searching for solutions. The Consumer Privacy Act in California (effective January 2020) provides for statutory damages to individuals whose information has been compromised. Those residents will now have the ability to bring suit against the company whose systems were breached. With this new law, a significant increase in data breach class action lawsuits in the state is expected.

Listen to the recordings below to hear Andrew N Friedman, Elizabeth Canter and Peter Davidson discuss the impact of the California law on data security, and what the future holds for both consumers and companies that handle such large amounts of user data.

Part 1:

Part 2:

See below for photos from the event!