Tagvoryan and Reilly Discuss Surge in California ALPR Litigation Following Key Court Decision

Manatt Consumer Protection and Advertising Partner  and Privacy and Data Security Leader were quoted in Privacy Daily discussing the growing wave of litigation involving California’s automated license plate reader (ALPR) law following the recent Bartholomew v. Parking Concepts decision.

In the article, Tagvoryan explained that the ruling lowered a significant hurdle for plaintiffs by recognizing alleged violations of individuals’ statutory “right to know” as a cognizable harm. She noted that the decision has already contributed to a rise in class actions targeting retailers, hotels, property owners and other organizations that use license plate recognition technology. Tagvoryan also outlined how the ruling shifted the focus of litigation away from requiring allegations of concrete downstream harm and toward compliance with the law’s transparency and public disclosure requirements. “Before Bartholomew, the defendants’ strongest threshold defense was that an ALPR plaintiff needed to allege more than a statutory violation and, instead, had to plead some concrete downstream injury, such as misuse, disclosure, a security breach, economic loss or other present harm,” she said.

Reilly placed the trend in the broader context of evolving privacy litigation, observing that plaintiffs are increasingly pursuing claims based on the collection and disclosure of personal data itself rather than waiting for a data breach, economic loss or other traditionally recognized harms. He noted that, as comprehensive privacy laws often lack private rights of action, plaintiffs continue to look to other statutes that provide avenues for private litigation and statutory damages. “This debate is not new in privacy law,” he said, adding that while “historically, alleged privacy violations have only been actionable in court if they met a relatively high standard of resulting harm,” modern comprehensive state privacy laws have “introduced clearer standards” while lacking a private right of action.

Read the full article .