The bankruptcy court has not yet approved the settlement, so it remains pending. The California deal is one of several. Chrome agreed to pay $18 million to 42 states in July and to disburse $46.7 million under a June settlement with U.S. data breach claimants. The nonprofit TTAM Research Institute, which bought 23andMe's customer assets for about $305 million, has said it is not involved in matters related to Chrome Holding. Anne Wojcicki, who co-founded 23andMe, is CEO of Chrome Holding. The stipulation also bars the debtors from direct consumer sales for five years and from collecting or maintaining personally identifiable information during that period.
The settlement closes a fight over whether bankruptcy can override state privacy law. California objected to the asset sale under the Genetic Information Privacy Act, and the objection was denied. The state then appealed, and this deal ends that appeal. Bonta framed the outcome directly: "Companies cannot evade California's consumer protection and privacy laws by filing for bankruptcy." Attorneys handling genetic data matters or bankruptcy sales with privacy overlays should track the court's approval decision and the terms of the five-year restrictions.