Vending

Court denies Compass Group’s request to rehear consumer privacy violation lawsuit

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July 2, 2020

A federal appeals court has denied Compass Group USA's request to rehear a decision that allowed a consumer to sue the company for violating an Illinois consumer privacy law.

The United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit on June 30 denied the rehearing and amended the previous opinion. The judges — Diane Wood, Kenneth Ripple and Ilana Rovner — amended the provision in the law that the plaintiff made her claim under.

Plaintiff Christine Bryant claimed in her original suit that Compass Group USA violated the Illinois consumer privacy law by not getting her written consent to collect her fingerprints at a vending machine. This past May, the appeals court agreed to let the suit proceed.

Bryant first brought a putative class action against Compass Group in the Circuit Court of Cook County in late 2019. She was granted a request to remand the case to state court. The defendant then appealed to the U.S. District Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit to move the case to federal court. The appeals court remanded the case to federal court.

The defendant subsequently filed for a rehearing of the case.

In response to the request for a rehearing, the judges ruled that the plaintiff alleged a claim under the provision of the Illinois law requiring development of a "written policy, made available to the public, establishing a retention schedule and guidelines for permanently destroying biometric identifiers and biometric information," not under the provision requiring compliance with the established retention schedule and destruction guidelines.

Compass Group USA did not respond to a Vending Times request for comment at the time of this report.