CIPA, CCPA/CPRA, and GDPR Cookie Consent Guidelines for Law Firms

Why should a U.S.-based law firm care about European privacy rules, California wiretapping laws, or cookie consent? Because a growing wave of litigation is targeting routine website features, such as Google Analytics, contact forms, chatbots, and search bars. Here is a technical and legal analysis regarding your website’s compliance and cookie consent requirements.

Legal Disclaimer

Before we proceed further, we are not your attorneys – that is your day job. This writing does NOT constitute formal legal advice. We urge you to seek out counsel on this issue or conduct your own research. 

Technical Analysis

If you are reading this article, then from a technical standpoint, your website probably utilizes Google Analytics via Google Tag Manager. You may also have Meta Pixel tracking and other cookie tools. However, your site may lack a fully compliant “Accept / Decline” cookie consent banner that only allows analytics to activate after user acceptance. 

Whether you need to add this banner, and have analytics fire after acceptance, will depend on your firm’s location, revenue, clients, and tolerance for potential litigation. To mitigate risks, PaperStreet recommends adding a cookie notice to your website that activates analytics upon acceptance. 

Legal Analysis

From our understanding, there are three major privacy and cookie consent frameworks your firm must navigate. Most of the time, the cookie regulations in Europe (GDPR) and California (CCPA/CPRA) do not apply to small and mid-size businesses in the U.S., as they do not meet the threshold of each law. 

However, litigants in California have been using a 60-year-old California wiretapping law (CIPA) to bring novel lawsuits against businesses in the U.S. You still run the risk of facing litigation if you do not have a cookie notice on your website and activate analytics before obtaining each user’s consent. 

Note that some of these lawsuits have ruled in the defense’s favor, except in extreme cases of tracking. In addition, the California legislature is proposing amendments to the CIPA law to allow for commercial business purposes, which would negate these cases. But until the law is changed and case law settled, you may want to add an Accept / Decline notice for cookies and have analytics activate after acceptance.

GDPR, CCPA, and CIPA Laws

• GDPR (Europe): General Data Protection Regulation is a long-established law. If your business is in the EU, offers goods/services to the EU, has any EU clients, or monitors individuals in the EU, then you are strictly required to offer an explicit “Accept” or “Decline” option for cookies – unless they are strictly necessary for the website to operate.
• CCPA/CPRA (California): The California Consumer Privacy Act, as amended by the California Privacy Rights Act (CPRA), applies to for-profit entities doing business in California that meet any of the following thresholds: 
  • Revenue: Has an annual gross revenue exceeding $25 million; 
  • Data Volume: Annually buys, sells, shares, or receives the personal information of 100,000 or more California residents or households;
    – OR – 
  • Data Monetization: Derives 50% or more of its annual revenue from selling or sharing consumers’ personal information. Note: The law applies to businesses outside California that meet any of the criteria above and collect personal data from California residents.
• CIPA (California Invasion of Privacy Act): Originally enacted in 1967 to prevent physical wiretapping, this statute has become the leading driver of high-volume class action litigation and demand letters targeting routine website technologies. Plaintiffs’ attorneys are suing companies utilizing tools like Google Analytics, Meta Pixels, chatbots, and search bars under two primary frameworks:
  • The “Wiretapping” Theory (§ 631) argues that third-party analytics scripts embedded on a site act as an illegal digital “eavesdropper.” Because the website operator facilitates this by installing the script, they are sued for “aiding and abetting” unauthorized real-time interception of user communications.
  • The “Pen Register” Theory (§ 638.51) is being used in a wave of newer claims arguing that tracking software functions as an illegal “pen register” or “trap and trace” device by capturing a user’s IP address and routing data without a prior court order or explicit consent. 

How This Applies to You

If your firm does not do business in Europe, doesn’t meet the CCPA thresholds, and has low California web traffic, your legal exposure under GDPR and CCPA is likely minimal.

However, CIPA litigants have recently been aggressively targeting small- to mid-sized businesses, demanding settlements ranging from $5,000 to $50,000. While some companies have successfully defended against these lawsuits, defending them requires time and legal fees. 

Further, there is uncertainty in the law. There are some cases that have survived dismissal, and there are splits in some California federal and state courts, depending on the jurisdiction. Liability may depend on the forum in which a suit is filed and the preferences of the individual judge.

“Meanwhile, plaintiffs and defendants alike continue to watch the California legislature to see whether it will pass legislation to amend CIPA. SB 690, which was introduced in February 2025 but advanced to the 2026 legislative session, would significantly curb the ongoing deluge of CIPA litigation. Specifically, the bill would exempt from CIPA liability the use of recording or tracking technologies that serve a “commercial business purpose,” targeting the near-ubiquitous pixels, cookies, and other website tracking technology.”  See – https://www.coblentzlaw.com/news/wiretap-litigation-update/ and https://legiscan.com/CA/text/SB690/id/3186917

Recommended Next Steps

To block potential CIPA claims, we recommend implementing a strict cookie consent banner. Under this setup, Google Analytics will remain entirely disabled until a user explicitly clicks “Accept.”

Note on Data Loss

Implementing strict consent will likely lead to a significant drop in your Google Analytics data, as many users choose not to opt in. However, this is currently the most secure way to prevent opportunistic CIPA claims.

Implementation Options

We can help you deploy this via three different solutions:

Setup & Implementation Cost

Regardless of the tool you choose, we estimate 1 hour of development time to install, configure, and thoroughly test the integration. The total cost is a one-time fee of $250 + the cost of your selected tool.

*Note that complex integrations may require more time and integration. It depends on the original website setup, access to analytics, and the sheer number of tracking technologies. 

Next Steps

Contact us if you would like to proceed or if you have any questions regarding the above information. We understand the potential issues and are ready to discuss your potential options.