CA Attorney General Sues Delta Air Lines for Alleged Privacy Policy Failure

Approximately one month after sending notices of noncompliance with the California Online Privacy Protection Act (“CalOPPA”) to approximately 100 mobile application developers and companies, California’s attorney general filed the first lawsuit alleging noncompliance with CalOPPA (People Of The State Of California v. Delta Air Lines, CGC-12-526741).  On December 6, 2012, California’s attorney general filed a complaint (the “Complaint”) in the San Francisco Superior Court against Delta Air Lines, Inc (“Delta”), alleging that Delta’s “Fly Delta” mobile application collects a wide variety of personally identifiable information without making a privacy policy accessible to users of the app.  According to the Complaint, this failure violates both CalOPPA and California’s Unfair Competition Law (CA Bus. & Prof. Code § 17200 et seq.), and Delta failed to correct the shortcomings within 30 days of receipt of the notice of noncompliance.  In the Complaint, California’s Attorney General asks the Court to (i) permanently enjoin any future acts of unfair competition, (ii) allow the plaintiff to recover attorneys’ fees and costs of investigation, and (iii) fine Delta $2,500 per violation proved at trial.