The California Consumer Privacy Act is set to go into effect Jan. 1, 2020, and, according to experts, class action litigation is coming and in-house lawyers would do well to make sure their companies are working toward compliance.

“We're past the time where companies should have started preparing for the CCPA,” Edward McAndrew, a partner at DLA Piper in Wilmington, Delaware, said.

In April, the 2019 Carlton Fields Class Action Survey indicated that the next wave of class action suits will result from data breaches. The report, citing responses from over 300 general counsel and senior in-house attorneys, indicated that state data privacy laws such as the CCPA will be the reason for an expected uptick in these kinds of class action suits.