U.S. Appeals Court Rules in Samsung Privacy Case

Samsung has been relieved from paying over $4 million in arbitration fees to settle allegations of violating Illinois privacy law after a federal appeals court ruled that the plaintiffs, nearly 40,000 Samsung customers, failed to prove their association with Samsung. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit reversed a lower court's decision that demanded Samsung to arbitrate claims related to Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act violations. The ruling impacts the broader strategy of mass arbitration by plaintiffs' lawyers. Samsung denied the allegations and challenged the validity of arbitration agreements, emphasizing the lack of evidence from consumers to support their claims. The court emphasized the insufficiency of evidence in proving the existence of arbitration agreements between Samsung and the consumers.