U.S. Chamber Backs SB 690 to Curb CIPA Litigation

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce is pressing California lawmakers to pass SB 690, a bill designed to curtail abusive litigation brought under the California Invasion of Privacy Act (CIPA).

In a letter to the Privacy and Consumer Protection Committee, the Chamber voiced strong support for the legislation and requested that the bill's prohibitions on pending litigation be restored — provisions that appear to have been stripped or weakened during the legislative process.

"We want to reiterate the importance of passing this legislation," the Chamber wrote. "It is urgent that California addresses this issue as the laws original scope has been contorted to enable frivolous litigation."

The letter identifies a specific and growing business concern. According to the Chamber, the industry has recently experienced "an onslaught of trivial demand letters and litigation asserting that CIPA applies to internet-based activity."

At stake is the scope of a decades-old statute. The California Assembly originally enacted CIPA to prevent unlawful wiretapping of traditional telephony. Plaintiffs' attorneys, the Chamber argues, have since stretched that mandate far beyond its intended reach, using the law to target companies over internet-based activity the statute was never written to govern.

The Chamber's legal position is unambiguous. It continues to assert that CIPA's provisions "do not and were never intended to apply to the internet." The business group has held that line consistently in disputes over the statute's application to modern digital commerce.

SB 690 offers a legislative fix rather than a judicial one. The bill would provide additional legal certainty by specifying that CIPA does not apply to activity serving "a commercial business purpose." That carve-out, if enacted, would give companies a clearer defense against claims that routine online business operations violate the privacy act.

The Chamber's call to restore the provisions covering pending litigation signals the practical stakes for companies already facing CIPA claims. Without those provisions, businesses entangled in existing lawsuits could continue to bear defense costs even after the bill becomes law.

For California's business community, the letter amounts to a lobbying push at a decisive moment in the legislative session. The Chamber, one of the most influential business lobbies in the country, rarely weighs in on state-level committee deliberations unless it sees material financial exposure for its members.

The outcome of SB 690 will test whether California lawmakers are willing to narrow a plaintiff-friendly statute over objections from the trial bar — and whether companies operating online in the state get the legal certainty the Chamber says they need.