U.S. District Judge on Friday, has dismissed the damages to be paid by the BNSF Railway and ordered a new trial to decide the appropriate compensation amount for statutory damages.
New Ruling Resulted in $228Million being wiped out:
On Friday, U.S. District Judge ordered a new trial, which entirely wiped out the compensation to be paid by the railway company.
Previously, The BNSF was directed to pay a compensation of $228 million to their truck drivers for unlawfully collecting their Finger prints.
Jury’s Liability Verdict Was Upheld:
In yesterday’s Hearing the Illinois District Judge Matthew Kennelly upheld the Chicago jury’s liability verdict on October 2022, by giving affirmation to the statement that BNSF has violated the Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act, which imposes restrictions on the collection and use of personal information such as retinal scans and Finger prints by unlawfully collecting the truck drivers finger prints.
Jury to determine appropriate amount, of damages:
The District Judge Illinois Mathew stated that the damages awarded under the Biometric Information Privacy Act were discretionary. So, BNSF railway company is entitled to have a Jury to decide the Appropriate amount, of damages to be charged against them.
1st Trial under Illinois Biometric Privacy Law:
This BNSF trial is marked as the first trial under the Illinois Biometric Privacy Law.
Warren Buffet’s Berkshire Hathway owns BNSF, which operates one of the country’s largest freight rail networks.
Collecting the Drivers Fingerprints Without their Consent:
The case was filed in the Year 2019 by a truck driver named Richard Rogers, as a class action suit against the BNSF Railway Company for collecting their drivers Fingerprint without their consent.
Chicago Jury’s Verdict on this case:
During the 1st trial in Chicago, The Jury found that BNSF had recklessly or intentionally violated the law for 45,600 times, one for each member of the class action and was held liable to pay $5000 as a fine for each member for which amounts to a total of $228 million for 45,600 people.
Option not to award damages or less than the stated amount:
The Lawyers for the BNSF after the trial stated that the Illinois biometric law contains the word “may”. So, it has the option not to award the damages or to award less than the stated amount as statutory compensation.
BNSF Spokesperson says “Will go For an Appeal”:
Upon the verdict on 2022 The BNSF spokesperson said that the company believes the verdict to be as “reflects a misunderstanding of Key issues”.
And said that the Company will definitely go for an appeal.
The Most Stringent Privacy Law in the Country:
Illinois Privacy Protection Law is considered as the most stringent Privacy law across the country.
1st state to introduce the biometric data Privacy Law:
In 2008, Illinois became the 1st state in the country to enact the Law on Biometric Data Privacy.
The law requires the organisations and other companies which use and store their employees Biometric identities to comply with certain requirements.
If not meeting the requirements prescribed under this Act, it gives the right of action to the plaintiffs by awarding them statutory damages as a remedy for the breach of their biometric data by the entities.
Facebook was not an exception:
After the BNSF trial, the list was followed by the global giant like Facebook was also booked under the Biometric Data Privacy act for violating the law by having a feature which could recognize the people in photographs shared in the site.
Promised to pay $658 million as a compensation to the people in the class action suit.
