The consolidated cases involve three workers - commercial truck driver Reginald Clay, and employees John Gregg and Brandon Willis - who alleged their employers illegally collected fingerprints and hand geometry through biometric time clocks and facility access systems. Clay faced potential damages of $7.5 million for approximately 1,500 fingerprint scans, while Willis filed a putative class action that could have resulted in billions in damages.
Chief Judge Diane Brennan wrote that the 2024 amendment to BIPA Section 20 constitutes a 'remedial change' that should be treated as procedural under Illinois law, making it retroactive. The court rejected plaintiffs' arguments that the amendment was substantive because it changed liability scope, finding instead that it 'simply cabined the recovery available against defendants' without altering 'when a cause of action ... has arisen.' The amendment limits damages to 'at most, one recovery' per person regardless of multiple biometric collections using the same method.
The cases reached the Seventh Circuit through interlocutory appeals after district courts certified the retroactivity question for review. The Illinois legislature passed the amendment in response to the state supreme court's 2023 Cothron decision, which held that BIPA claims accrue with every biometric scan but warned of potential 'annihilative liability' for businesses and invited legislative review of damages provisions.
The ruling significantly reduces potential exposure for defendants in pending BIPA cases nationwide and provides clarity for the hundreds of similar suits filed under the privacy law. On remand, district courts must apply the amended damages framework and may need to reconsider other aspects of the cases, including subject matter jurisdiction, the panel noted.