California Attorney General Xavier Becerra (Photo: Jason Doiy/ALM)

Over 30 trade associations and companies co-signed a letter this week to California Attorney General Xavier Becerra asking him to push back the July 1 enforcement date for the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) due to the new coronavirus and a lack of clarity on the enforcement rules.

"The undersigned organizations employ millions of individuals who are faced with this crisis and are doing their best to manage their personal and professional lives in the face of uncertain times. Many companies have instituted mandatory work-from-home measures to limit community," the letter states.

United Parcel Service, Feld Entertainment Inc., and the National Association of Mutual Insurance Companies are among the organizations that signed onto the letter.

An adviser to the attorney general said in an email to Corporate Counsel on Friday that the office is "mindful of the new reality created by Covid-19," but said the office still plans on enforcing the rules when they are finalized or on July 1, whichever comes first.

The letter states keeping that date would force companies to consider tradeoffs "between decisions that are best for their employees and the world-at-large that may help the organizations they lead avoid costly and resource-intensive enforcement actions."

One issue is that many companies across the country are now requiring their employees to work from home. On Thursday, California Governor Gavin Newsom ordered all employees to work from home. On Friday, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo ordered companies to keep their employees home beginning Sunday evening.

Michelle Hon Donovan, a partner at Duane Morris in San Francisco, said in an interview that working from home is going to be a barrier to CCPA compliance.

"The big issue with many of my clients is that they're working from home and they're not as efficient," Donovan said.

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Companies, Trade Organizations Seek to Postpone CCPA Enforcement Date

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