In the latest development, an Illinois judge has granted a motion to pause proceedings in a lawsuit against US-based cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase. This decision would suspend further actions in the crypto company’s court case involving alleged violations of the state’s Biometric Information Privacy Act (BIPA).
The Court of Appeals case involves Nuance Communications and Charles Schwab, with the intricacies around supplying voice identification technology forming the foundation of the legal battle. The decision from this particular lawsuit could set precedent for how BIPA affects financial service providers, including cryptocurrency exchanges.
The court document read:
[T]he Court finds that the stay would simplify the issues and streamline the trial […] reduce the burden of litigation on the Court and the parties […] [and] would not unduly prejudice or tactically disadvantage Plaintiffs.
Under Illinois’ Biometric Information Privacy Act, private firms or organizations can face damages of up to $5,000 for each instance of reckless or intentional violation of the law and $1,000 per negligent violation of the BIPA. The plaintiffs also sought relief to cover their legal costs.
While the customer contractors were eventually dismissed, the individuals behind the data breach tried to extort $20 million in Bitcoin from Coinbase. Ultimately, this incident has put Coinbase under pressure and called into question its process of handling personal user data.
