The Illinois Appellate Court recently ruled that a company’s liability insurance policy for personal injury covered an underlying class action alleging violations of the Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act (BIPA) and that the company’s insurer therefore had a duty to defend the company in the class action. In a separate 2019 landmark decision, it was established that companies could be held liable under BIPA for mere statutory non-compliance. In the case, the Illinois Supreme Court found that civil liability under BIPA does not require a data breach, wrongful disclosure, or actual injury to the consumer. Following that case, class actions under BIPA increased significantly, including a Ninth Circuit case that Facebook agreed to settle in January 2020 for $550 million.
