Company: OCEA
Filing Date: 2025-04-08
Form Type: 10-K
Source: 0001641172-25-003155
Chunk: 2664

Company: Ocean Biomedical, Inc.
Filing Date: 2025-04-08
Form: 10-K
Item: Item 1
Chunk 2664
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 the foreseeable future, which may create uncertainty in our business,
affect our or our service providers’ ability to operate in certain jurisdictions or to collect, store, transfer use and share personal
data, result in liability or impose additional compliance or other costs on us. Any failure or perceived failure by us to comply with
federal, state, or foreign laws or self-regulatory standards could result in negative publicity, diversion of management time and effort
and proceedings against us by governmental entities or others.

The
CCPA, which went into effect on January 1, 2020, provides new data privacy rights for consumers and new operational requirements for
companies, which may increase our compliance costs and potential liability. The CCPA gives California residents expanded rights to access
and delete their personal information, opt out of certain personal information sharing, and receive detailed information about how their
personal information is used. The CCPA provides for civil penalties for violations, as well as a private right of action for data breaches
that is expected to increase data breach litigation. The CCPA (a) allows enforcement by the California Attorney General, with fines set
at $2,500 per violation (i.e., per person) or $7,500 per intentional violation and (b) authorizes private lawsuits to recover statutory
damages for certain data breaches. Additionally, on November 3, 2020, California voters approved the California Privacy Rights Act or
CPRA ballot initiative. The CPRA, which will come into effect on January 1, 2023, will significantly modify the CCPA and expand the privacy
rights of California residents. We cannot yet predict the impact of the CPRA on our business or operations, but it may require us to
incur additional costs and expenses. While there is currently an exception for protected health information that is subject to HIPAA
and clinical trial regulations, as currently written, the CCPA may impact certain of our business activities. The new California law
may lead to similar laws in other U.S. states or at a national level, which could increase our potential liability and adversely affect
our business.

In
addition to our operations in the United States, which may be subject to healthcare and other laws relating to the privacy and security
of health information and other personal information, may seek to conduct clinical trials in EEA and may become subject to additional
European data privacy laws, regulations and guidelines. The GDPR, became effective on May 25, 2018, and deals with the