Can a company charge a fee for responding to a right to be forgotten request?

Likely no.

Neither the CCPA nor the proposed regulations explicitly address the issue of imposing fees or costs on consumers for responding to requests for access or requests for deletion.  However, the CCPA does prohibit businesses from discriminating against consumers on account of the exercise of any right available to the consumer under CCPA, including the right to deletion.  Thus, in enforcing this provision, the California Attorney General may argue that charging a consumer to process a request for deletion is discriminatory and therefore in violation of CCPA.

This article is part of a multi-part series published by BCLP to help companies understand and implement the General Data Protection Regulation, the California Consumer Privacy Act and other privacy statutes.  You can find more information on the CCPA in BCLP’s California Consumer Privacy Act Practical Guide.