United States of America: Ninth Circuit issued ruling partially upholding and partially vacating preliminary injunction of California Age-Appropriate Design Code Act

On 12 March 2026, the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit partly upheld and partly vacated an earlier order blocking the California Age-Appropriate Design Code Act (CAADCA), a law establishing privacy obligations for online services likely to be accessed by individuals under 18. The court upheld the injunction with respect to provisions restricting certain uses of children’s data and the rule addressing the use of “dark patterns”. It held that these provisions were insufficiently clear in defining the conduct they prohibit and therefore allowed the injunction against them to remain in place. At the same time, the court vacated the injunction for other parts of the law, including the definition of services covered by the Act and the requirement for businesses to estimate the age of their users. The court concluded that the party challenging the law had not established the factual record required to support a facial constitutional challenge at this stage, applying the standard set in Moody v NetChoice. The court also vacated the lower court’s determination on whether certain provisions of the law could be separated from the remainder of the Act, stating that this issue could not be resolved at the preliminary injunction stage. The case was remanded to the lower court for further proceedings.