A Niles-based bottler and distributor of Coke products has become one of the latest Illinois employers targeted by a potentially costly lawsuit under Illinois's genetic information privacy law.
Reyes Coca-Cola Bottling is facing a class-action lawsuit accusing the company of allegedly violating the Illinois Genetic Information Privacy Act.
The plaintiffs are represented by attorneys Timothy P. Kingsbury, Andrew T. Heldut and Colin P. Buscarini, of the firm of McGuire Law P.C., of Chicago.
The lawsuit alleges the Reyes company violated the Illinois Genetic Information Privacy Act allegedly by requiring potential employees to undergo a physical exam during which their family medical history was requested.
The lawsuit is seeking a potentially big payout from Reyes of up to $15,000 per alleged violation, as allowed under GIPA, plus attorney fees.
The plaintiffs seek to expand the action to include anyone who applied for a job at Reyes in the past five years.
Since 2022, a growing group of plaintiffs' lawyers have filed similar GIPA-related class actions against dozens of other large Illinois employers, seeking potentially massive paydays. The lawsuits have followed a similar pattern to those set by litigation under Illinois' controversial Biometric Information Privacy Act, which has resulted in a litany of multi-million dollar settlements, and hundreds of millions of dollars in collective attorney fees paid to class action lawyers who file the suits.
Legal observers believe trial lawyers, including those who have reaped big paydays from the BIPA-related lawsuits, are now trying to similarly land big money from the similar GIPA lawsuits.