Speedway Will Have To Take BIPA Claims "Whose Maximum Penalty Reaches The Mesosphere" To Trial

Duane Morris Takeaways: On September 29, 2024, in Howe, et al. v. Speedway, LLC, No. 19-CV-01374, 2024 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 176263 (N.D. Ill. Sept. 29, 2024), Judge Edmond Chang of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois denied Speedway's two motions for summary judgment and granted Plaintiff's motion for class certification, meaning this Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act (the "BIPA") class action will proceed to trial.

This decision is significant for employers because it represents another example of a court limiting the sparse defenses available to corporate defendants in BIPA cases.

Case Background

Plaintiff worked as a manager trainee and then as a manager for Speedway, LLC ("Speedway"). Like many employers, Speedway used finger-scan timeclocks for its employees to clock in and out of work "to avoid the problem of 'buddy punching' (clocking in and out for someone else)." Id. at *1. These timeclocks scanned the ridges of an