• by Wendy Davis  @wendyndavis, January 29, 2020

The ad industry is urging the California Attorney General to postpone enforcing the state's new privacy law until at least six months after regulations implementing the measure have been finalized.

The California Consumer Privacy Act, which took effect Jan. 1, gives consumers the right to learn what personal information has been collected about them by companies, to have that information deleted, and prevent the sale of that data to third parties. Enforcement is slated to begin in July.

Last October, Attorney General Xavier Becerra issued a set of draft regulations, including instructions for businesses on how to allow people to opt out of disclosure of their information. Those regulations have not yet been finalized.

The ad industry now says businesses will need additional time to comply with the rules.

“Given the extraordinary complexity of the law and the wide range of open issues to be clarified from the draft guidance, there will not be sufficient time for many businesses to effectively implement the final regulations prior to the anticipated enforcement date of July 1, 2020,” the Association of National Advertisers, American Association of Advertising Agencies, Interactive Advertising Bureau, Network Advertising Initiative and American Advertising Federation say in a letter sent Wednesday to Attorney General Xavier Becerra.

The groups add that the draft rules “presented significant new and unprecedented requirements” for businesses.

“Without final regulatory requirements, business will be unable to make operational changes to their systems, further delaying finalization of their compliance programs,” the organizations write. “In order to avoid consumer and business confusion with respect to the new rules, we request that you further delay the enforcement of the law to begin six months from the date the CCPA regulations become final."

Last month, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce also sought a delay in enforcement. That group says enforcement shouldn't begin until 2022, noting that Europe's sweeping General Data Protection Regulation didn't take effect until May 2018, more than two years after European regulators adopted final regulations.