Retailers Paying Close Attention to California Supreme Court

The Ninth Circuit charged the California Supreme Court with setting the parameters for a transaction during which companies are prohibited under the Song-Beverly Credit Card Act from collecting personal information. “The purpose of the Song-Beverly statute is to regulate the retail collection of personal information and give retailers some guidance on what the prohibitions are, so it would make sense for the Supreme Court to say to retailers, here are the parameters in which you can ask for personal information,” said Catherine D. Meyer, senior counsel handling finance and privacy regulation compliance. If the court chooses to establish a point at which liability under the statute ceases to apply, retailers will have a better chance of escaping the growing number of class actions. “If merchants do it right, then distinguishing when exactly the transaction ends would likely give them the ability to cut off their liability at that point,” said litigation and financial services partner Christine A. Scheuneman. Click here to read the full article.