More employers continue to be added to the ever-expanding list of thousands of Illinois companies facing class actions over employee fingerprint and other biometric ID scans under Illinois' stringent biometrics privacy law.
In the wake of recent Illinois Supreme Court decisions cementing a sweeping, broad reach for the Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act (BIPA), class action complaints under the law against employers have not slowed, and may be showing signs of increasing, as new attorneys appear to have added their names to the roster of firms and lawyers seeking to cash in on the potential big-money claims.
Illinois employers of various sizes are the top targets, as the complaints continue to primarily press claims accusing business of improperly requiring workers to scan their fingerprints or other so-called biometric identifiers without their consent. Businesses have noted to no avail that the identity scans have been common practice in the U.S. for many years, when punching the clock at work or when accessing sensitive areas in workplaces, like cash rooms and drug lockers.
But under the BIPA law, plaintiffs claim the scans are not allowed if employers did not first secure written consent from workers before requiring the fingerprint scans or did not provide them with notices detailing how the scanned data would be managed..
From Feb. 27 - March 1 a collection of complaints were filed by attorneys Daniel Schlade and James Dore of Justicia Laboral, of Chicago. These include:
Juan Fransisco Tellez Diaz v American Diversified Staffing, LLC, filed 2/27. Located in Northbrook, American Diversified is a staffing agency serving the Chicago area specializing in placement for employees in multiple industries;
Jose Arnulfo Agudelo v Pure Bros Investments filed 2/28. Pure Bros is a large-scale manufacturer and packager in the cookie industry. Pure Bros provides scalable outsourcing in manufacturing, packaging, and distribution;
Jose Angel Salinas Garcia v World's Finest Chocolate, Inc, filed 2/28. Operating since 1949, Chicago based World's Finest Chocolate is a chocolate retailer specializing in the wholesale production of chocolate products for fund-raising;
Olga A. Alvarez v Tangent Technologies, LLC, filed 2/28. Based in Aurora, Tangent Technologies is in the business of manufacturing plastics, materials, and resins. Their focus is transforming recycled material into environmentally conscious products for use in applications such as marine, parks and recreation, agriculture, structural engineering and other uses;
Susan Lopez Negrete v IMEX Global Solutions, LLC, filed 2.28. IMEX Global Solutions, formerly of Pitney Bowes, is worldwide provider of international mail logistics and distribution services;
Joel Baltazar v Midlothian Country Club, filed 3/1. Operating since 1898, Midlothian Country Club is a Chicago area cultural facility offering recreation and entertainment venues with year-round amenities to its members and the community;
Adam Lopez Martinez v TRAC Intermodal, LL C, filed 3/1. Based in New Jersey with locations in Illinois, TRAC Intermodal serves as an intermodal equipment provider and specialty marine chassis fleet manager in the commercial trucking industry; and
Olivia Cordero v Calma Group, LLC filed 3/1. Calmark Group, located in Bedford Park, is a small local business providing printing and marketing services to the community.
Also on Feb. 27, attorneys Roberto Louis Costales and William Beaumont, of the Beaumont Costales firm in Cook County Circuit Court filed class actions under BIPA, including:
Bryan Puerta v LX/JT Intermediate Holdings, filed 2/27. Headquartered in Chicago, LX/JT Intermediate Holdings specializes in the management of enterprises and companies focused on fruit based non-alcoholic beverages, specialty foods, and fruits and vegetable preservation and manufacturing; and
Trevaye May v Kenco Logistic Services, LLC, filed 2/27. Chattanooga, Tennessee-based Kenco Logistic Services is a third party management provider for distribution, transportation, materials handling, supply chain management and eCommerce and Manufacturing.
As these lawsuits cascade unfettered into court by the thousands since 2015, payouts have already amounted to huge hits to employers accused of BIPA violations. With the potential to extract damages of $1,000-$5,000 per violation, this could mean big dollars. The Illinois Supreme Court confirmed that risk in two recent rulings, which together would allow plaintiffs to demand damages of $1,000-$5,000 per fingerprint or other biometric scan - not per employee - dating back as much as five years.
Fast food chain White Castle, for instance, estimated in court the damages under the Illinois Supreme Court's holdings concerning the law could rise to as much as $17 billion, which would potentially destroy the business entirely.
The Illinois Supreme Court's majority asserted it did not believe courts would allow damage awards that would destroy entire businesses.
But businesses have warned that, without relief from courts or changes to the law from legislators, the Illinois Supreme Court's rulings will result in economic devastation from "astronomical damages" that put entire companies out of business, over technical violations of the law that resulted in no concrete harm to workers.