Businesses operating in Illinois have faced thousands of lawsuits arising under the Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act (BIPA), leading to hundreds of cases and related insurance claims. Insurance companies have aggressively denied coverage for these claims and filed litigation seeking court approval of their denials, forcing policyholders into a two-front legal war. Recently, the Illinois Supreme Court granted a major victory for businesses facing BIPA lawsuits, holding that a BIPA lawsuit alleging a wrongful sharing of biometric information fell within standard “personal or advertising injury” coverage in a commercial general liability policy and was not excluded.
This update discusses the court’s decision and the lessons that businesses can learn from it, including potentially narrowing the time available for possible BIPA plaintiffs to seek relief and the need for policyholders to never accept an insurer’s coverage denial at face value.