Samsung gets one biometric data privacy case back into court, another dismissed

Samsung has defeated a ruling that would have compelled it to go through mass arbitration over allegations of biometric data privacy violations, and pay the administrative fees for doing so, while a second, similar case filed against the Korean electronics giant has been dismissed.

A three-member appeals court panel ruled unanimously that plaintiffs did not show valid arbitration agreements, and that the lower court which had ruled incorrectly also does not have the authority to force Samsung to pay the fees, according to a court document hosted by Reuters.

The Wallrich v. Samsung lawsuit, filed under Illinois’ Biometric Information Privacy Act (BIPA), alleged Samsung had not met its informed consent obligations when its Galaxy phones and tablets processed users’ face biometrics. The American Arbitration Association (AAA) had sent Samsung a bill for $4 million, touching off a dispute. A district court judge ruled last year that the company would have to abide by an arbitration clause in its terms and conditions.

The ruling on appeals is effectively that it already did so.

“If the AAA believed Samsung was abusing the arbitration process, it could have stayed the case or threatened to decline administering future consumer arbitrations with Samsung, but it did not,” the ruling says. “Instead, the AAA terminated the proceedings and invited the parties to resolve their claims in district court.”

The appellate court also ruled that the spreadsheet of names and addresses of Samsung customers provided did not prove that they are customers and therefore subject to the terms and conditions. Receipts and order numbers would have served that purpose, but the appeals court says the case does not permit plaintiffs to refile with the appropriate information. This means they must pursue the action in court, or try again with arbitration.

The case still could end up in the Supreme Court, Reuters reports.

A second BIPA lawsuit against Samsung, alleging violations by the Gallery photo application, has also been defeated. An Illinois federal judge granted Samsung’s motion to dismiss the complaint on grounds that the complaint does not show the company controlled customers’ data.

The decision in G.T. v. Samsung, hosted by Law360, says the creation of biometric data by the app does not mean that Samsung possesses that data, despite the company having created the app. The complaint also fails to allege that the app can identify a person, instead stating only that unidentified faces are grouped together for manual identification. This claim is “insufficient to show that the data constitutes either a biometric identifier or biometric information,” according to the ruling.

The plaintiffs are free to amend their complaint in this case.

Article Topics

biometric data  |  Biometric Information Privacy Act (BIPA)  |  biometrics  |  data privacy  |  lawsuits  |  Samsung