FTC v. Wyndham: Third Circuit Affirms FTC Authority to Regulate Data Security

The United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit’s much anticipated ruling in FTC v. Wyndham has now been released. The court affirmed the FTC’s authority under section 5 of the FTC Act to seek consent decrees or bring enforcement actions against companies that allegedly failed to put in place reasonable cybersecurity practices to protect consumer data. The court also affirmed the district court’s finding that the Federal Trade Commission provided sufficient “fair notice” to Wyndham regarding the cybersecurity practices the agency deems reasonable to avoid liability under the FTC Act. With this decision, the case will now move forward to the merits phase at the district court. A more detailed analysis of this decision will be posted here shortly.

For our previous blog post on FTC v. Wyndham, click here.

Authored by the HL Chronicle of Data Protection Team