USA – GEORGIA Trends and Developments Contributed by: Louis Cohan, Bert Levy, Adrianna Prosdocimo and Grace Vigar, Cohan & Levy
the homeowner. A hearing officer will be appointed and will have the discretion to order a hearing with appropriate notice. The hearing officer will issue their findings and conclusions, and the homeowner and the HOA will have 15 days to comply. Appeals may be made to the magistrate court if the claim is within the jurisdictional amount, or to the superior court in all other cases. Finally, SB 406 strengthens due process by increasing the notice requirement for foreclosure liens from 30 days to 60 days and doubling the minimum delinquency amount to USD4,000, consisting only of unpaid assessments. Because filing the complaint stays collection of fines and fees, and the non-prevailing party is only required to pay USD100 to the Secretary, there is a clear potential to abuse the system. Even so, these new laws are expected to curb longstanding abuses of power. • HB 62: Georgia’s proposed HB 62 focuses on the management aspects of HOAs and highlights the importance of fairness, transparency and account - ability. HB 62 increases election oversight by requiring, at a minimum, annual board elections whereby the results are filed with and certified by the Secretary. Furthermore, HB 62 promotes board accountability by requiring board members to be a resident of the community, meaning that they own a unit and list that unit address on their govern - ment-issued ID. Data breaches: could your business now be liable? A landmark decision from 2025 will surely impact the future of Georgia data breach litigation; see Bland v Urology of Greater Atlanta , LLC , 377 Ga. App. 177 (2025). For the first time, a Georgia appellate court applied a common law duty of care requiring busi - nesses to protect their customers’ personally identi - fiable information against foreseeable cybersecurity risks. At the motion to dismiss stage, the court permit - ted the plaintiffs in this putative class action to pro - ceed on their claims – namely, those for negligence and breach of an implied contract to implement data security adequate to protect the privacy of the plain - tiffs’ personal information. Although this case arose in the healthcare industry, the common law duty will apply to any business facing foreseeable risk of data breaches. With data breach
crime increasing globally, it will be easy for a plain - tiff to plead that a business defendant knew of the importance of the private information and the conse - quences of a breach. Accordingly, companies should assess cybersecurity risks and implement sufficient safeguards, examine cybersecurity insurance cover - ages, and consider whether they can disclaim or oth - erwise limit liability. Georgia’s first swing at regulating artificial intelligence As of 1 July 2027, artificial intelligence (AI) operators must comply with the unprecedented SB 540 regard - ing AI companion chatbots (“AI companions”). There are numerous requirements aimed at protecting all consumers, such as requiring operators to disclose to users that they are interacting with an AI compan - ion, rather than a natural person. In addition, an AI companion may not represent that it is qualified to provide professional services unless its operator is lawfully authorised to provide such services. There are also a large number of requirements specifi - cally protecting minors. For example, operators must take reasonable measures to prevent AI companions from discussing a list of topics that legislators iden - tified as sensitive. To identify minor users, opera - tors must implement and maintain age assurance methods. While employing age assurance methods, companies must minimise the collection of personal information, keep retention periods short, and refrain from selling any data collected in the process. Once a minor account is identified, there are additional account settings that must be made available to the minor and their parents, such as tools for managing screen time. The Attorney General will enforce these requirements and may do so by bringing civil actions against violators. Similar to the Protecting Georgia’s Children on Social Media Act (2024), SB 540 may face challenges when it comes to age assurance methods and potential cybersecurity risks. Regardless of the short retention periods, the onus will be on the businesses creat - ing the AI companions to implement sufficient data security measures to protect the personally identifi - able information.
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