Governor Newsom Should Protect California Small Businesses Facing Predatory Lawsuits
Sep 29, 2026 04:49PM ● By Gytahnna Loffgren
Across California,
small businesses are under attack from shakedown lawsuits for doing something
most of us never imagined could put our livelihoods at risk: having a website
for the company that we’ve founded.
I know because it happened to us.
My husband and I have spent 20 years building Element Electric, our small family business in Dixon. We install solar panels and home battery systems for families and businesses across Solano, Napa, Yolo, and Contra Costa counties. We both still work full-time jobs while running our business and raising our three sons, including one with special needs.
Then, on May 21, we were sued. It turns out a man in Southern California – hundreds of miles away – had visited our website for a few minutes in March. He never called, emailed, asked for a quote, or purchased anything from us, but because our website used a common analytics tool so we could most efficiently allocate our marketing budget, we were hit with a 30-page lawsuit alleging violations of California’s privacy laws and seeking hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Until that lawsuit arrived, I had no idea this was happening to small businesses, nonprofits, food banks, and even rural healthcare providers across California.
The claims against us rely on predatory trial lawyers twisting the California Invasion of Privacy Act, or CIPA, a law enacted in 1967 to protect Californians from wiretapping and other serious invasions of privacy. Nearly 60 years later, provisions of that law are being misapplied to common website tools such as pixels, cookies, appointment schedulers, chat functions, and more.
After we were sued, we learned the same attorney filed nearly identical lawsuits against eleven other Northern California solar companies on the same day, using the same plaintiff, causes of action, and allegations, in many places word for word. Only the business name, address, and website URL changed.
Public records show the same Los Angeles law firm, Mou Law, has filed more than 200 similar complaints against California businesses, including contractors, plumbers, roofers, and HVAC companies, in almost all cases using the same handful of rotating plaintiffs. More than 4,200 CIPA lawsuits have been filed in California in recent years, while thousands more businesses have received demand letters threatening litigation unless they pay. One person responsible for thousands of demand letters to businesses like mine is a convicted felon who isn’t even an attorney. The victims are business owners forced to decide whether to spend tens of thousands of dollars defending themselves or pay a settlement to make the problem go away – even when we have done nothing wrong.
What makes these lawsuits so abusive is that paying a demand becomes increasingly more practical than defending yourself in court. And yet, those thousands of dollars are how we pay employees, save for our boys college, and save for our future retirement.
That is why SB 690 matters to businesses like mine.
Our lawsuit includes claims under several CIPA provisions, including pen register and trap-and-trace provisions. SB 690 directly addresses that problem by clarifying how the pen register and trap-and-trace provisions apply to businesses using common, everyday website technology for legitimate commercial purposes. For my business and others facing similar claims, addressing this avenue for abusive litigation would be a major help in the battles we are fighting right now.
The Legislature passed SB 690 without a single “no” vote, recognizing that California can protect consumers without allowing its privacy laws to become a tool for abusive litigation.
While SB 690 does not address every CIPA claim businesses like mine face, it provides much needed and immediate protections for thousands of small businesses. It addresses one of the provisions being used against us today, and for small businesses already spending money defending these lawsuits, that relief matters. We can keep the fight up next session to keep adding protections from unscrupulous lawyers twisting CIPA for a quick payday.
It took my husband and I 20 years to build what we have. It took someone only a few minutes on our website to put it at risk.
I urge Governor Newsom to sign SB 690 and give California small businesses immediate relief from one of the most abused provisions of this 60-year-old law.
Gytahnna Loffgren is co-owner of Element Electric Inc. in Dixon, California.
I know because it happened to us.
My husband and I have spent 20 years building Element Electric, our small family business in Dixon. We install solar panels and home battery systems for families and businesses across Solano, Napa, Yolo, and Contra Costa counties. We both still work full-time jobs while running our business and raising our three sons, including one with special needs.
Then, on May 21, we were sued. It turns out a man in Southern California – hundreds of miles away – had visited our website for a few minutes in March. He never called, emailed, asked for a quote, or purchased anything from us, but because our website used a common analytics tool so we could most efficiently allocate our marketing budget, we were hit with a 30-page lawsuit alleging violations of California’s privacy laws and seeking hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Until that lawsuit arrived, I had no idea this was happening to small businesses, nonprofits, food banks, and even rural healthcare providers across California.
The claims against us rely on predatory trial lawyers twisting the California Invasion of Privacy Act, or CIPA, a law enacted in 1967 to protect Californians from wiretapping and other serious invasions of privacy. Nearly 60 years later, provisions of that law are being misapplied to common website tools such as pixels, cookies, appointment schedulers, chat functions, and more.
After we were sued, we learned the same attorney filed nearly identical lawsuits against eleven other Northern California solar companies on the same day, using the same plaintiff, causes of action, and allegations, in many places word for word. Only the business name, address, and website URL changed.
Public records show the same Los Angeles law firm, Mou Law, has filed more than 200 similar complaints against California businesses, including contractors, plumbers, roofers, and HVAC companies, in almost all cases using the same handful of rotating plaintiffs. More than 4,200 CIPA lawsuits have been filed in California in recent years, while thousands more businesses have received demand letters threatening litigation unless they pay. One person responsible for thousands of demand letters to businesses like mine is a convicted felon who isn’t even an attorney. The victims are business owners forced to decide whether to spend tens of thousands of dollars defending themselves or pay a settlement to make the problem go away – even when we have done nothing wrong.
What makes these lawsuits so abusive is that paying a demand becomes increasingly more practical than defending yourself in court. And yet, those thousands of dollars are how we pay employees, save for our boys college, and save for our future retirement.
That is why SB 690 matters to businesses like mine.
Our lawsuit includes claims under several CIPA provisions, including pen register and trap-and-trace provisions. SB 690 directly addresses that problem by clarifying how the pen register and trap-and-trace provisions apply to businesses using common, everyday website technology for legitimate commercial purposes. For my business and others facing similar claims, addressing this avenue for abusive litigation would be a major help in the battles we are fighting right now.
The Legislature passed SB 690 without a single “no” vote, recognizing that California can protect consumers without allowing its privacy laws to become a tool for abusive litigation.
While SB 690 does not address every CIPA claim businesses like mine face, it provides much needed and immediate protections for thousands of small businesses. It addresses one of the provisions being used against us today, and for small businesses already spending money defending these lawsuits, that relief matters. We can keep the fight up next session to keep adding protections from unscrupulous lawyers twisting CIPA for a quick payday.
It took my husband and I 20 years to build what we have. It took someone only a few minutes on our website to put it at risk.
I urge Governor Newsom to sign SB 690 and give California small businesses immediate relief from one of the most abused provisions of this 60-year-old law.
Gytahnna Loffgren is co-owner of Element Electric Inc. in Dixon, California.
