California Privacy Watchdog Seeks Court Order to Compel Tractor Supply to Comply with CCPA Probe

Key Takeaways

• First Judicial Enforcement by CPPA: The California Privacy Protection Agency has filed its first court action to enforce an investigative subpoena.
• Target of the Action: Tractor Supply Company is under investigation for potential violations of the California Consumer Privacy Act of 2018.
• Focus of the Probe: Regulators are examining whether the retailer failed to honor consumers’ right to opt out of the sale and sharing of personal information online.
• Alleged Noncompliance: The CPPA says Tractor Supply refused to answer sworn questions about its business practices during specific time periods.
• Regulatory Signal: The move marks a more assertive enforcement stance from the CPPA and underscores the expectation that companies must cooperate with privacy investigations.

Deep Dive

The California Privacy Protection Agency (CPPA) has taken the unusual step of going to court to enforce an investigative subpoena against Tractor Supply Company, marking the agency’s first public disclosure of an ongoing investigation and its first judicial action to compel compliance with an investigative request.

In a petition filed August 6 in Sacramento Superior Court, the CPPA alleges that the Fortune 500 retailer, known as the nation’s largest rural lifestyle chain, failed to comply with a subpoena seeking sworn testimony on its business practices and compliance with the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA).

The investigation, led by the CPPA’s Enforcement Division, is examining whether Tractor Supply violated Californians’ privacy rights in several ways, including potentially failing to honor the state’s hallmark right for consumers to opt out of the sale and sharing of their personal information online. That right is central to California’s privacy framework and is one of the law’s most closely watched provisions by both regulators and consumer advocates.

According to the petition, the agency served a subpoena requiring the company to answer questions under oath about its practices during specific periods, but Tractor Supply allegedly refused to provide the requested responses.

“We will not hesitate to seek the court's assistance when necessary to advance our investigations and protect Californians' privacy rights,” said Michael Macko, the CPPA’s head of enforcement. “We look forward to addressing the merits of this dispute in court.”

The case signals a more assertive enforcement posture from the CPPA, which has until now kept ongoing investigations confidential. By moving to enforce its subpoena publicly, the agency is not only escalating its probe into Tractor Supply but also sending a message to other businesses subject to the CCPA that cooperation with investigative requests is not optional.

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