North America: Privacy

State attorneys general across the nation are taking decisive action on multiple fronts, from challenging federal AI oversight gaps and protecting commercial driver privacy to cracking down on deceptive marketing practices and medical debt collection violations. Major settlements address data breaches affecting millions of consumers, while new lawsuits target charitable fraud, kratom product misrepresentation, and toxic heavy metals in baby food.

The FDA's acceptance of foreign clinical trial data hinges on strict compliance with good clinical practice standards, population representativeness, and data integrity requirements that sponsors must carefully navigate. As the agency intensifies scrutiny of non-U.S. trial sites and emphasizes demographic diversity in study populations, pharmaceutical companies face mounting challenges in ensuring their international research programs meet evolving regulatory expectations.

As organizations increasingly deploy autonomous AI systems, new cybersecurity challenges emerge when these agents operate beyond their intended boundaries. This discussion explores critical governance frameworks and incident response protocols necessary to maintain control over AI pilots, from defining precise agent instructions to implementing robust logging systems that enable effective investigation of security incidents.

On September 22, 2026, the “Second Resolution of Amendments to the General Foreign Trade Rules for 2026 and Annexes 1, 2 and 22” was published in the Federal Official Gazette.

California Senate Bill 690 eliminates private lawsuits under Penal Code § 638.51 for alleged pen register violations involving website tracking technologies, while leaving other privacy claims intact. The legislation addresses aggressive litigation tactics but does not create broad exemptions for commercial website activity or amend California's wiretapping provisions. Businesses must understand both the relief provided and the significant limitations of this narrow reform.

The Perfect Law Class Action Conference at NYU brought together practitioners and academics from Europe, Canada, and the United States to debate cutting-edge issues in class action litigation, with particular focus on privacy violations, securities fraud, and the transformative impact of artificial intelligence. The conference explored how Article III standing requirements are shaping privacy class actions, with detailed analysis of recent cases demonstrating the critical importance of pleading specific, se