BNSF Subject to Class Action Based on Illinois Biometric Privacy Act

On October 31, 2019, in Richard Rogers v. BNSF Railway Company, 2019 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 79338, 2019 WL 2076192, the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, Eastern Division, denied Defendant BNSF Railway Company’s Motion to Dismiss Rogers’s Amended Complaint pursuant to Fed. R. Civ. Pro. Rule 12(b)(6) for failure to state a claim. BNSF argued that the plaintiff’s claims were preempted by federal transportation statutes, but the district court disagreed and denied the defendant’s motion. This decision is possibly the beginning of other lawsuits alleging technical violations in the collection and preservation of personal biometric data in the transportation industry.