California Appellate Court Affirms ADA Preemption Ruling

Upholds ADA Preemption of State Privacy Protection Law

A California appellate court affirmed a lower court's holding that the State of California's action against Delta Air Lines, Inc. ("Delta") under California's unfair competition law was expressly preempted by the federal Airline Deregulation Act of 1978 ("ADA"). California's Online Privacy Protection Act of 2003 ("OPPA") requires certain operators of commercial websites and online services that collect personally identifiable information to post a privacy policy addressing, among other things, the type of personally identifiable information collected and with whom the operator may share that information. Delta operated a mobile application that collected personally identifiable information about customers residing in California without posting a privacy policy as required by the OPPA. The ADA preemption provision provides in pertinent part: "a State, political subdivision of a State, or political authority of at