As noted in our previous alert, the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals was set to decide whether the 2024 amendment to the Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act (BIPA) — which limits liability by treating repeated collections of biometric data from the same person using the same method as a single violation — should apply retroactively to pending cases. That decision has now arrived.
On April 1, 2026, a three-judge panel of the Seventh Circuit reversed a trio of district court rulings and held that the amendment applies retroactively to every lawsuit pending at the time it took effect. The consolidated appeals had each previously been decided by district courts finding the amendment to be a substantive change that could only apply prospectively. The Seventh Circuit disagreed, concluding that the amendment is remedial in nature, as it adjusts the statutory damages available to plaintiffs without altering the underlying standards of liability or the conduct that BIPA prohibits.
