July 11, 2024 – Attorney General Lynn Fitch (R-MS) and Attorney General Aaron Ford (D-NV) filed a bipartisan, multistate amicus brief earlier this month. The brief, submitted to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, defends state laws that hold web-based companies accountable for online consumer protection violations. A federal district court in California previously ruled in favor of Shopify in a data privacy case (Briskin v. Shopify Inc), granting special protections to the online platform and similar companies.
“According to the U.S. Department of Commerce, retail e-commerce sales for just the first three months of this year exceeded $268 billion,” said Attorney General Lynn Fitch. “Mississippi consumers are increasingly conducting business online. Online businesses cannot be allowed to evade state consumer protection laws that help level the playing field for everyday consumers against big corporations. The lower court in this case essentially found that because online companies do business everywhere, they can be held accountable nowhere. I was proud to stand with AG Ford and these 29 other Attorneys General in a bipartisan effort to protect American consumers when they do business online.”
Digital Protections
“Our consumers need protection from fraudsters who are able to take advantage of laws that lag behind the rapid technological growth in the digital retail space,” said Attorney General Aaron Ford. “If online companies are able to skirt their responsibility to consumers, it makes it harder for states to protect their residents from online scams.”
In the brief, Generals Fitch, Ford, and 29 other Attorneys General explained, “[Adoption of the lower court’s analysis] could deprive state attorneys general of a proper venue to enforce their respective states’ consumer protection and other laws against internet-based companies. Such an extreme result could potentially immunize these companies from ever facing enforcement actions from state attorneys general seeking to protect their states’ citizens using their state legislative grants of authority to do so.”
In addition to Mississippi and Nevada, 29 Attorneys General in total joined the amicus brief. This includes those from Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawai’i, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Oregon, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South Dakota, Vermont, Washington, and the District of Columbia.
By Vicksburg News
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