Frito-Lay has become one of the latest large employers in Illinois targeted by a class action lawsuit under the state's biometrics privacy law over the way the company requires workers to scan their fingerprints to track their hours worked.
Plaintiff Steward Hinton filed a class action lawsuit in the Cook County Circuit Court against Frito-Lay Inc., citing negligence and carelessness in violation of the Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act (BIPA).
According to the lawsuit, Hinton is a former employee of Frito-Lay, Inc. and worked for the company for two years from 2017 to 2019. Hinton alleges that during his employment, he was allegedly required to use a fingerprint reader system to clock in and out of work.
The lawsuit states that BIPA requires that prior to collecting biometric data, including fingerprints, companies must inform employees in writing that their biometric data will be collected and stored. It also states that employees must be informed in writing of the specific purpose for which the biometric data is being collected and for how long it will be stored. Additionally, BIPA requires that companies must receive a written release from the employee for the collection of their biometric data.
Hinton alleges the defendant invades the privacy of its employees by collecting and storing their fingerprints without informed consent. He further claims that the company never received a release from him allowing them to collect his fingerprints, and he never authorized the company to collect his fingerprints for this use.
The lawsuit is similar to thousands of others filed against employers of all types and sizes in the state since 2015, when the first class actions rolled into court under the privacy law. The growth in the number of such class actions has only accelerated through the years, as courts have routinely ruled plaintiffs don't need to prove they were actually harmed by the data collection to demand settlements and judgments potentially worth many millions of dollars, or more, depending on the size of the company.
Plaintiffs can demand damages of $1,000-$5,000 per violation under the BIPA law. The Illinois Supreme Court has ruled the law should be interpreted to define individual "violations" as each time a company scans someone's biometrics, no matter how many times it may have been done before, over the preceding five years. Thus, the damages can be multiplied against hundreds or even thousands of "individual violations" across an entire workforce.
As in the other cases, Hinton is seeking monetary damages for himself and everyone in his class action lawsuit, plus court costs, attorney fees, and any other relief the court deems proper. He is also requesting the court issue an order requiring the Frito-Lay company to cease the collection of biometric data without informed written consent.
The plaintiff is represented by attorneys Ryan F. Stephan, James B. Zouras and Anna M. Ceragioli, of the firm of Stephan Zouras, of Chicago.