Privacy Watch Mid-Year 2026: 22 States, One Fifth Circuit Bombshell & an FTC That Means Business

We’re only halfway through 2026, and the privacy and marketing legal landscape has already shifted dramatically. Twenty-two states now have comprehensive data privacy laws on the books, AI and consumer health data bills are moving through legislatures, and the plaintiff’s bar is busier than ever.

On the telemarketing front, the Fifth Circuit’s Bradford ruling has upended years of consent assumptions, and that’s just the beginning. Courts are split on whether a marketing text is even a “call” under the TCPA, plaintiffs’ attorneys are pivoting hard toward do-not-call and prerecorded-message theories, and class action risk is being redrawn in real time. Meanwhile, the FTC and state AGs are training their sights on subscription practices, auto-renewals, and email marketing violations.

Join Mac Murray & Shuster attorneys Josh Stevens and Aaron Parry for a practical mid-year briefing on the developments that matter most for your compliance and marketing programs.

What we’ll cover:

• Which new state privacy laws are in effect, what’s still moving through legislatures, and what it all means for multistate compliance.
• The Fifth Circuit’s Bradford ruling and the growing debate over whether a text is even a “call” under the TCPA.
• What Washington’s CEMA litigation explosion means for email marketing and which states could be next.
• What state AGs are doing that the FTC isn’t, and which industries are finding themselves most in the crosshairs.
• The top three steps businesses should take now to reduce risk heading into the second half of 2026.
• And more…

Hope to see you there!