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The case involved White Castle and its practice of scanning
fingerprints to check in workers, a violation of the Biometric
Information Privacy Act in Illinois. BIPA requires informed consent
before collection or disclosure of an individual’s biometric
information.
The Illinois Supreme Court Court ruled 4 to 3 Friday that a separate
claim could be made for every single finger scan. The court noted in
the dissent that the decision could have a “crippling” impact on
Illinois businesses.
“It will lead to consequences that the legislature could not have
intended,” Justice David Overstreet argued.
Violations can come with $1,000 fines, and for intentional or
reckless violations, the penalties are $5,000 each. White Castle has
nearly 10,000 employees, so the fine would be massive.
“Seventeen billion dollars for statutory violations,” Phil Melin,
executive director of Citizens Against Lawsuit Abuse-Illinois, told
The Center Square. “That is going to kill businesses, and the
Supreme Court said as much in their decision, I mean literally,
White Castle won’t be able to pay that much money.”
White Castle contended alleged claims can accrue only once when the
biometric data is initially collected, but the court disagreed.
“The minority reasoning on that case said, ‘listen, you only took
their bio information once and each time they checked in that wasn’t
recollecting fingerprint data because they already had it’,” Melin
said.
Other companies have been hauled into court after claims they
violated BIPA, including Google, SnapChat and Facebook. Last year,
more than one million Facebook users in Illinois received checks
following a $650 million settlement in a class-action lawsuit
alleging the social media company violated residents' rights by
collecting and storing scans of their faces without permission.
As for the latest ruling by the high court, Melin said Illinois
lawmakers need to tweak the law.
“The Illinois’ Biometric Information Privacy Act is a poorly drafted
law that allows trial attorneys to obtain ludicrously excessive
damage amounts that are far out of proportion with any sane
estimation of harm,” Melin said. “The ramifications of this decision
will extend beyond the financial destruction of one beloved
102-year-old Midwest restaurant chain, as the shock waves of this
decision ripple through the Illinois economy.”
Kevin Bessler reports on statewide issues in Illinois
for the Center Square. He has over 30 years of experience in radio
news reporting throughout the Midwest.
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