California Attorney General Rob Bonta, co-leading a bipartisan coalition of 21 attorneys general and charitable regulators, sent a letter to GoFundMe demanding the platform remove all plagiarized donation web pages for over 1.4 million charities, disclose information about donations, and ensure pages do not outrank official charity sites in search results. The action follows reports that GoFundMe used charities' information without consent and engaged in deceptive solicitations, violating state charitable solicitation and consumer protection laws.
GoFundMe must provide proof of removal of all unauthorized donation pages within 14 days, disclose all information affecting donation decisions (such as who donations were made to instead of charities), and explain how it ensured plagiarized pages did not appear above official charity websites in internet search results.
In-house legal teams should review all vendor and platform agreements with charitable organizations, as well as any data processing or partnership contracts where charity information is used. Key clauses to examine include data usage and licensing terms, intellectual property representations and warranties, accuracy of solicitation materials, audit rights, and termination for breach provisions. Specific changes may be needed to require explicit, prior written consent from charities before using their information or creating derivative pages, add warranties that solicitations are accurate and non-misleading, include obligations to ensure third-party pages do not outrank official charity sites in search results, and mandate prompt removal of any unauthorized content upon request. Agreements should also clarify disclosure requirements regarding where donations are directed and provide robust indemnification for the charity.
Entity
GoFundMe
Industry
TechnologyOfficial Press Release
https://oag.ca.gov/news/press-releases/attorney-general-bonta-co-leads-bipartisan-coalition-demanding-gofundme-prove
03 03 26 GoFundMe Multistate Letter
https://oag.ca.gov/system/files/attachments/press-docs/03-03-26%20GoFundMe%20Multistate%20Letter.pdf
California Attorney General Enforcement Page
https://oag.ca.gov/privacy/privacy-enforcement-actions
"GoFundMe is an internet platform for people to fundraise and solicit donations"
"Under Government Code section 12580 et seq., the Attorney General may investigate and bring legal actions"
"Without the prior consent or knowledge of charities, GoFundMe plagiarized donation web pages for over 1.4 million charities"
California Attorney General Rob Bonta, joined by attorneys general from seven other states, filed a lawsuit to block the $6.2 billion merger between Nexstar Media Group and Tegna Inc. The lawsuit alleges the merger violates Section 7 of the Clayton Act by reducing competition in local TV markets, leading to higher prices, less local news, and job losses.
California Attorney General Rob Bonta filed a lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Education to block the expansion of IPEDS data collection requiring colleges to submit race-linked student data. The lawsuit argues the demand is arbitrary, capricious, and burdensome, and could enable costly partisan investigations. A multistate coalition co-led the challenge.
California Attorney General Rob Bonta and a coalition of state attorneys general announced they will continue their antitrust lawsuit against Live Nation/Ticketmaster after the U.S. Department of Justice settled the case. The states aim to hold Live Nation accountable for anticompetitive conduct that harms consumers, artists, and venues in the live music industry.
$376K
The California Privacy Protection Agency (CalPrivacy) settled with Ford Motor Company requiring the company to pay a $375,703 fine and change its practices. Ford violated the CCPA by requiring consumers to complete an email verification step before they could opt-out of the sale and sharing of their personal information collected through digital properties and connected vehicle services. In addition to the fine, Ford must provide easy methods to submit opt-out requests with minimal steps, audit its tracking technologies, and ensure compliance with opt-out preference signals including Global Privacy Control.
California Attorney General Rob Bonta sent a letter to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services opposing a proposed rule that would eliminate model card requirements for AI tools in healthcare, warning that such rollbacks could lead to biased and unsafe healthcare decisions by reducing transparency.
California Attorney General Rob Bonta secured a second preliminary injunction from the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California blocking the Trump Administration's demand that states turn over personal data of SNAP applicants and recipients. The court found the USDA's proposed data protocol would allow sharing of state data with entities unrelated to federal benefits administration, violating federal law.