Law note · Georgia
Georgia Fair Business Practices Act, civil action by individuals
Any person who suffers injury or damage from a consumer act or practice that violates the Georgia Fair Business Practices Act may bring an individual civil action, though not a class action, to obtain equitable injunctive relief and to recover general and exemplary damages, with exemplary damages available only for an intentional violation and the court awarding three times actual damages for an intentional violation.
A prevailing injured party is also entitled to reasonable attorneys' fees and expenses of litigation, though fees incurred after rejecting a reasonable written settlement offer within 30 days of the required pre-suit demand are excluded, and fees shift against a plaintiff who continues an action after such a rejection in bad faith or to harass.
This private right of action is separate from, and broader in subject matter than, the Personal Identity Protection Act's breach-notification duty, which itself creates no private right of action.
What it asks of an app
- Expect a Georgia consumer harmed by a deceptive or unfair act or practice, including a misrepresentation about data collection or protection, to be able to sue individually for injunctive relief and damages under the Fair Business Practices Act.
- Do not treat the absence of a private right of action under the Personal Identity Protection Act's breach-notification duty as immunity from suit. A breach involving a deceptive or unfair practice can still be pursued under the Fair Business Practices Act.
- Expect exemplary damages and full attorneys' fees where a violation is found intentional.
When LexLint raises it
Declared activities: crawls_web, trains_models, deploys_chatbot, automated_outreach
Primary source: official Code of Georgia Annotated text, hosted by the Georgia Attorney General's Consumer Protection Division