On July 13, 2023, a three-judge Ninth Circuit panel denied Google’s challenge of its earlier decision in Jones v. Google, which held that state privacy law claims in a putative class action are not preempted by the federal Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA). The December decision reversed a lower court’s dismissal of the action on the grounds that COPPA preempted identical state law claims. Google petitioned the Ninth Circuit to have the case reheard by the full court, and the panel asked the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to weigh in on the preemption question. In May, the FTC submitted an amicus brief in support of the Ninth Circuit’s finding that COPPA does not preclude identical state law claims. The panel’s decision affirms its December opinion and amends it to note the FTC’s support.
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