Illinois' BIPA Amendment Brings Relief To Private Entities

On August 2, 2024, Governor J.B. Pritzker signed SB 2979 into law, amending the Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act (BIPA, 740 ILCS 14/ et seq.) in two significant ways:

The amendment expressly limits an individual to, at most, one recovery under sections 15(b) and 15(d) where a private entity collects the individual's same biometric information multiple times by the same method or, in the case of 15(d), discloses that information to the same recipient in the same way. In such cases, a private entity that violates section 15(b) or 15(d) will be found to have committed only a single violation. The amendment overturns the Cothron v. White Castle "per-scan" damages holding, which provided that a separate claim accrues under BIPA each time a company collects or discloses an individual's biometric information in violation of sections 15(b) or 15(d).