CHICAGO, February 29, 2024—Duane Morris LLP has released the Duane Morris Privacy Class Action Review – 2024, which analyzes the key privacy-related rulings, settlements and litigation developments in 2023 and the significant trends that are apt to impact these types of class actions in 2024. Written by Duane Morris partners Gerald L. Maatman, Jr., Jennifer A. Riley and Alex W. Karasik, the Privacy Class Action Review – 2024 reflects a broad array of “lessons learned” from their extensive experience in defending privacy class action litigation throughout the United States.
“Privacy class action litigation ranks near the top of the list of issues that keep corporate counsel up at night,” says Maatman. “The significant stakes in these cases and the evolving legal landscape in privacy class action rulings and legislation make the defense of privacy class actions a challenge for corporations.”
Karasik adds that the review offers analysis on recent decisions rendered by the Illinois Supreme Court on the Biometric Information Protection Act (BIPA), which clarified that a five-year statute of limitations is applicable to the BIPA in Tims, et al. v. Black Horse Carriers, Case No. 127801 (Feb. 2, 2023), and decided that each fingerprint scan is its own discrete violation in Cothron, et al. v. White Castle Systems, 2023 IL 1280004 (Ill. Feb. 17, 2023). Karasik states that “the impact of the two decisions could exponentially increase monetary damages in BIPA class actions, especially in the employment context, where employees scan in and out of work multiple times per day for over 200 workdays days per year.”
Riley opines that privacy litigation, in a multitude of forms and theories, revealed itself as the hottest area of growth in terms of activity by the plaintiffs’ class action bar in the past 12 months. While the BIPA continued to drive lawsuits in Illinois, a new wave of wiretapping violation lawsuits targeted companies that use technologies to track user activity on their websites, based on the theory that such practices violate electronic interception provisions of various state laws when done without consent. Last year saw significant state legislative activity regarding data privacy, with five states adding new privacy laws. Riley asserts that “companies can expect an increase in these types of class actions as they continue their explosive growth in 2024.”
Manifesting the collective knowledge of the Duane Morris Class Action Defense Group and over 70 years’ combined class action experience of our editors, the Duane Morris Privacy Class Action Review – 2024 is designed to serve as an essential desktop reference for corporate counsel and business decision-makers to identify privacy risks, implement strategies to mitigate those risks, and best understand the significant monetary exposure for organizations that face a legal challenge regarding these risks.
Download the Duane Morris Privacy Class Action Review – 2024 e-book from the publisher. The e-book is fully searchable and able to view from any device.
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