IL biometrics privacy reforms apply to past cases, too: Appeals court – Illinois
IL biometrics privacy reforms apply to past cases, too: Appeals court – Illinois
Publish Date: 2026-04-03 07:41:00
Source Domain: blackchronicle.com
Pending class action lawsuits under Illinois’ stringent biometrics privacy law may have become significantly less lucrative, after a federal appeals court declared reforms enacted to limit financial payouts under the law don’t just apply to the lawsuits filed since the reforms took effect a little less than two years ago.
On April 1, a three-judge panel of the U.S. Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals sided with railroad Union Pacific and other businesses on the hotly debated question, with potentially hundreds of millions or even billions of dollars collectively at stake.
In the ruling, the Seventh Circuit judges said they believed the reforms were “procedural” in nature, and not “substantive.” Therefore, under prior, consistent rulings from the Illinois Supreme Court, the appeals court said, the reforms must also be considered “remedial” in nature, and therefore, retroactive, even if lawmakers didn’t include language specifically saying so.
Essentially, the judges said, the reforms did not alter how lawsuits can be filed under the law, or for which causes. Rather, lawmakers intended the reforms to only apply to limit the potential financial damages the plaintiffs can demand and prevent the law from being misused to demand payouts that could destroy businesses.
The decision was authored by Seventh Circuit Judge Michael Brennan. Judges David Hamilton and Candace Jackson-Akiwumi concurrred.
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“… The amendment did not alter when ‘a cause of action … has arisen,’ nor did it change ‘the rights, duties, and obligations of persons to one another’ —the hallmarks of substantive changes,” Brennan wrote in the opinion. “It simply cabined the recovery available against defendants who violate the Act.”
The decision comes as potentially a final answer on one of the hottest questions surrounding Illinois’ unique and controversial Biometric Information Privacy Act (BIPA).
Since 2015, the BIPA law has spawned thousands of…
