As you know at CPW, we’re all about covering developments in data privacy litigation.  Florida is one of the states currently contemplating new privacy legislation with a broad private right of action for consumers (check out our “final four” coverage discussing it here and an earlier overview of the bills here).  Well, this week Florida’s privacy bills (SB 1734 and HB 969) hit an unexpected bump with a “strike all” Senate Rules Committee amendment proposed to SB 1734.  This “friendly” amendment would the replace SB 1734 with a new version—notably one that drops the private right of action provision.

In support of the amendment, concerns were expressed that the previously proposed private right of action with statutory damages would make Florida a “cottage industry for plaintiffs’ attorneys with gotcha lawsuits,” as seen from recent litigation activity in Illinois (over 1,000 lawsuits filed under BIPA) and California (76 class action lawsuits filed under CCPA since start of 2020).  For the proceedings before the Senate Rules Committee check it out here (discussion of private right of action starts at 56 minutes in).